Peter Ilyitch Tchaikovsky
Concertos

About Peter Ilyitch Tchaikovsky's Concertos

Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No. 1 is one of the most popular works for piano and orchestra in the entire repertoire. But if Tchaikovsky had listened to the advice of Nicolai Rubinstein, it would never have been published. Tchaikovsky hoped that Rubinstein would perform the work, but instead the famous virtuoso delivered scathing criticism, declaring it worthless and unplayable. Tchaikovsky then approached Hans von Bülow, who premiered the concerto in Boston in 1875, where it was so successful that Bülow had to repeat the Finale. Rubinstein eventually changed his mind and subsequently played the solo part many times, adding to its popularity. Tchaikovsky, wanting to reciprocate, started composing another concerto, again with the intention of dedicating it to Rubinstein who would have premiered it had he not died before getting the opportunity. Again, the new concerto premiered in the US, this time in New York with Madeline Schiller as the soloist.

The third concerto was originally planned as the first movement of a symphony. The reworking into a one-movement Allegro Brillante for piano and orchestra became Tchaikovsky's last completed work, published after his death as Opus 75. It is sometimes played together with the Andante and Finale, the remaining movements from the planned symphony left incomplete by Tchaikovsky. Sergei Taneyev reworked these movements into a separate work for piano and orchestra, which was published as a work of Tchaikovsky's and given the opus number 79.