1st piano concerto (Tchaikovsky)

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The 1st Piano Concerto op. 23 in B flat minor by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky was written in 1874 and premiered in Boston in 1875 with Hans von Bülow at the piano, to which the concerto is also dedicated.

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Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1868)

Tchaikovsky originally wanted to dedicate the piano concerto to his friend and mentor Nikolai Rubinstein , to whom he owed a great deal, not only having given him musical training, but also offering the penniless Tchaikovsky free room and board for a few years. But when he played it to Rubinstein on the piano , he only expressed excessive criticism and contempt, considered the work to be unsaved, but finally advised Tchaikovsky to thoroughly rework it. Rubinstein's reaction touched Tchaikovsky so much that years later he remembered this scene with horror in a letter to his patron Nadezhda von Meck (1831–1894):

“I played the first set. Not a word, not a comment ... I found the strength to play the whole concert through. Still silence. ,Now?' I asked as I got up from the piano. A stream of words poured out of Rubinstein's mouth. At first gently, as if trying to gather strength, and finally breaking out with the force of Jupiter Tonans. My concert is worthless, completely unplayable. The passages are so fragmented, incoherent and poorly composed that even improvements are not enough. The composition itself is bad, trivial, vulgar. Here and there I would have stolen from others. A page or two might be worth saving; the rest must be destroyed or completely recomposed. "

Tchaikovsky did not change a note at the concert, but sent it to the pianist and conductor Hans von Bülow with the request that he form his opinion. He had nothing wrong with the concert and replied to the composer: "I am proud of the honor you have shown me by dedicating this wonderful work of art, which is gorgeous in every way." Then he had the orchestra rehearse it and sat there the premiere in 1875 in Boston personally at the piano. Rubinstein, who had changed his mind about the work and gave a legendary performance in Paris in 1878, helped him to achieve real success . From there the plant began a veritable triumphant advance; it became the most frequently performed piano concerto and is still not surpassed by any other concerto.

Three versions of the concert by Tchaikovsky have survived, one of which he made for two pianos.

  • 1874–75: Composition of the first version, November 1874 to February 21, 1875 in Kamenka.
  • 1874, October 25: First performance at the Boston Music Hall by Hans von Bülow (piano) and Benjamin Johnson Lang (conductor).
  • 1875: version for two pianos. The orchestral parts and the version for two pianos were printed by P. Juergenson in Moscow.
  • 1876–79: Composition of the second version. The changes concern the piano part of the first movement following advice from Edward Dannreuther , Hans von Bülow and Karl Klindworth .
  • 1879, August: First printing of the score, printing of the parts and the solo part of the second version.
  • 1880: The second version for two pianos is printed by D. Rahter in Hamburg.
  • 1884, November 29: First performance of the second version in the Russian Music Society St. Petersburg by Natalia Kalinowskaja-Tschikachewa (piano) and Nikolai Rimski-Korsakow (conductor).
  • 1888: Composition of the third version most commonly used today. The changes consist in shortening the third movement by ten bars.
  • 1888, January 20th: World premiere of the third version in the Hamburg Philharmonic Society by Vasily Lwowitsch Sapelnikow (piano) and Pyotr Tchaikovsky (conductor).
  • 1890 or later: First printing of the third version by P. Juergenson in Moscow. The tempo changes in the first and second movements may not have been authorized by Tchaikovsky.
  • 1955: First printing of the first version as vol. 28 of the first Tchaikovsky complete edition.

The work

Orchestral works Romantic themes.pdf
Orchestral works Romantic themes.pdf
Orchestral works Romantic themes.pdf

The great popularity of the concert not only among lovers of so-called classical music is also shown by the fact that its recording by the pianist Van Cliburn was sold more than a million times as a record at the end of 1961, something that had never been done before by any other classical work achieved record. The enthusiasm for the work is likely to have been largely shaped by the opening theme of the first movement, which is accompanied by the piano with massive chords extending over every 7½ octaves .

The movement names of the concert are:

  1. Allegro non troppo e molto maestoso
  2. Andantino semplice
  3. Allegro con fuoco

The first sentence

1 sentence

The first movement of the concert differs from the form of the sonata main movement, which was coined in the Viennese classical period . It begins in D flat major, the parallel key to B flat minor , with a sweeping pathetic introduction that can almost be viewed as a separate theme and initially gives the impression that this is a concerto in D flat major. This opening theme has its triumphant counterpart in the coda of the third movement, which creates a compelling dramaturgical reference and a large arc of content from beginning to end of the work.

This introduction (opening part) is characterized by a melody voiced by the orchestra, which is accompanied by the piano with powerful chords extending over the 7½ octaves of the keyboard. Already in this part there is a passage (bar 40) resembling the character of a cadenza , in which the piano has a solo part.

The introduction is followed one after the other by the two themes that are typical for the first movement: The dynamic theme in B flat minor (bar 108) is held in unison in the right and left hands, begins in triplets (this topic is a Russian folk song) and is first developed by breaking up the triplets in sixteenth notes Movements (bar 160) before the second, lyrical theme (bar 184) begins. This in turn actually begins more than a fragment of topics in which is interwoven with a third theme (bar 205), implementation is treated equally but in addition to the two main themes. The recapitulation comes as a bit of a surprise as it takes up the dynamic first theme, resolved to sixteenth notes (bar 445). The solo cadenza (bar 539) focuses on the third and finally the second theme and leads into the final sequence in which the piano and orchestra let the movement with the third theme come to an end. The first movement ends in the key of B flat major.

The 2nd movement

2nd movement

The second movement in D flat major begins with a solo melody in the flute , which is picked up by the piano. In sharp contrast to this lyrical theme, in the middle of the 2nd movement there is a quick section on the French chansonette “Il faut s'amuser, danser et rire” (you have to have fun, dance and laugh). This song in the middle of the sentence forms, as it were, the mirror axis of a symmetry, because at the end the opening theme is taken up again and brought to the end by the piano and oboe .

The 3rd movement

3rd movement
Alexander Siloti and Pyotr Tchaikovsky

The third movement is laid out in the form of a rondo , its themes have their origins in Russian folk dances. The first theme recurs in the interplay between piano and orchestra. Intermediate passages from runs and chordal jumps demand a certain amount of skill from the soloist and give the final movement its brilliance. The pianist Alexander Siloti , a cousin of Sergei Rachmaninoff , has made an arrangement in the form of a drastic shortening of a passage due to the excessive length of the movement. Even today the concert is usually performed in this shortened version.

occupation

The line-up consists of 2 flutes , 2 oboes , 2 clarinets , 2 bassoons , 4 horns , 2 trumpets , 3 trombones (2 tenor and 1 bass), timpani , solo piano and strings .

The recordings

Almost every pianist has dedicated himself to Tchaikovsky's 1st Piano Concerto, so that a list would get out of hand. The pianist Andrei Hoteev , who uses the original version, plays in the third movement of the concert passages that no longer appear in the later version that is usually used.

Sound recordings

See also

Web links

Commons : Piano Concerto No. 1 (Tchaikovsky)  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. Everett Helm: Peter I. Tchaikovsky. Rowohlt Taschenbuch Verlag, Hamburg 1976, ISBN 3-499-50243-7
  2. Charlotte Smith: Obituary: Van Cliburn, pianist. In: Gramophone . February 28, 2013, accessed July 27, 2018 .
  3. ^ A b Alfred Beaujean: Piano Concerto No. 1 . In: Wulf Konold (Ed.): Concert Guide Romanticism . Schott, Mainz 2007, ISBN 978-3-254-08388-3 , pp. 1006 .
  4. a b details. July 18, 2019, accessed August 13, 2019 .
  5. Malte Korff: Tchaikovsky: Life and Work . Deutscher Taschenbuch Verlag, 2014, ISBN 978-3-423-28045-7 , pp. 280 .
  6. Example 5. Retrieved August 13, 2019 .
  7. Thomas Kohlhase: Čajkovskijs 1. Concerto for piano and orchestra op. 23 Its genesis and early performance history, its sources, versions and editions . 2014, p. 32 ( tschaikowsky-gesellschaft.de [PDF]).
  8. Discography