by Judy Evans

Created on: January 20, 2011   Last Updated: January 21, 2011

Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky was born in Russia in1840. He showed a particular aptitude for music but was encouraged into a position as a civil servant. Against the wishes of his family he entered the St Petersburg Conservatory in 1862, graduating three years later. In America, Tchaikovsky’s music was often dismissed as being vulgar and trite. However by the end of the 20th century, he was recognised as a significant composer worthy of veneration. Tchaikovsky was the first Russian composer to capture the attention of British and American audiences.

Tchaikovsky wrote three piano concertos. All make reference to folk tunes which helps give them a distinctly Russian flavour. Concertos are pieces for a solo instrument supported by orchestra. There are also double and triple concertos, where two and three instruments respectively share the solo work.

A concerto generally has three separate movements which are varied in character and speed. The first movement is rather fast, the second movement slow, the third is often a minuet and trio and the last movement is very fast. These are generalisations and there are plenty of examples of concertos which don’t fit these rules.

Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No 1 in B Flat Minor, Op.23, is the best known of Tchaikovsky’s piano concerto and one of the best known of all piano concertos. It is extremely challenging to play.

The concerto was completed in the final days of 1874 and dedicated to his teacher and friend, Nikolai Rubenstein. Nikolai was less than complimentary about the piece, proclaiming it impossible to play. Tchaikovsky refused to change a note and the piece was given to Hans von Bulow, pianist and conductor who premiered the work in Boston in 1875. The audience loved it and a week later a New York audience demanded an encore of the second movement. The piece was revised in 1879 and again in 1888.

The concerto is a wonderful example of Romantic excess, full of lyricism and presenting huge challenges for both orchestra and soloist.

Orchestration consists of 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets (B flat), 2 bassoons, 2 trumpets, 4 horns in F, 3 trombones, timpani, solo piano and strings.

There are three movements:
* Allegro non troppo e molto maestoso – Allegro con spirito
* Andantino semplice – Prestissimo
* Allegro con fuoco

The memorable opening theme is well known and storms in with all guns blazing or so it seems. Blaring horns, sweeping strings and ascending piano chords

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