Piano Concerto No. 1 (Rachmaninoff)

Piano concerto by Sergei Rachmaninoff

Sergei Rachmaninoff composed his Piano Concerto No. 1 in F minor, Op. 1, in 1891, at age 17 18 (the first two movements were completed while he was still 17; the third movement and the orchestration were completed shortly after he had turned 18). He dedicated the work to Alexander Siloti. He revised the work thoroughly in 1917.

The public was already familiar with the Second and Third Concertos before Rachmaninoff revised the First in 1917. The First is very different from his later works; in exchange for less memorable melodies, this concerto incorporates elements of youthful vivacity and impetuosity. The differences between the 1890–1891 original and the 1917 revision reveal a tremendous amount about the composer's development in the intervening years. There is a considerable thinning of texture in the orchestral and piano parts and much material that made the original version diffuse and episodic is removed. Of all the revisions Rachmaninoff made to various works, this one was perhaps the most successful. Using an acquired knowledge of harmony, orchestration, piano technique and musical form, he transformed the early composition into a concise, spirited work.

Sergei Rachmaninoff, pianist, with Eugene Ormandy conducting the Philadelphia Orchestra, recorded in 1941. Byron Janis, pianist, with Fritz Reiner conducting the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, recorded in 1957. Philippe Entremont, pianist, with Eugene Ormandy conducting the Philadelphia Orchestra, recorded in 1958. Sviatoslav Richter, pianist, with Kurt Sanderling conducting the Leningrad Philharmonic Orchestra, recorded in 1959. Byron Janis, pianist, with Kirill Kondrashin conducting the Moscow Symphony Orchestra, recorded in 1962. Earl Wild, pianist, with Jascha Horenstein conducting the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, recorded in 1965. Tamás Vásáry, pianist, with Yuri Ahronovitch conducting the London Symphony Orchestra, recorded in 1975. Peter Rösel, pianist, with Kurt Sanderling conducting the Berliner Sinfonie Orchester, recorded in 1982. Zoltán Kocsis, pianist, with Edo de Waart conducting the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra, recorded in 1983. Vladimir Ashkenazy, with Bernard Haitink conducting the Concertgebouw Orchestra, recorded in 1986. Mikhail Rudy, with Mariss Jansons conducting the St. Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra, recorded in 1993. Krystian Zimerman, pianist, with Seiji Ozawa conducting the Boston Symphony Orchestra, recorded in 1997. Nikolai Lugansky, pianist, with Sakari Oramo and the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, recorded in 2003. Stephen Hough, pianist, with Andrew Litton conducting the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, recorded in 2004. Leif Ove Andsnes, pianist, with Antonio Pappano conducting the Berliner Philharmoniker, recorded in 2005. Boris Berezovsky, pianist, with Dmitri Liss conducting the Ural Philharmonic Orchestra, recorded in 2006. Simon Trpčeski, pianist, with Vasily Petrenko conducting the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, recorded in 2010. Yuja Wang, pianist, with Gustavo Dudamel conducting the Los Angeles Philharmonic, recorded in 2023.