Piano Concerto No. 1 (Prokofiev)

Sergei Prokofiev set about composing his Piano Concerto No. 1 in D-flat major, Op. 10, in 1911, and finished it the next year. The shortest of all his concertos, it is in one movement, about fifteen minutes in duration, and dedicated to the “dreaded Tcherepnin.”[1]

Structure

The work's single 15-minute span has the following tempo markings:

  1. Allegro brioso —
  2. Poco più mosso —
  3. Tempo I —
  4. Meno mosso —
  5. Più mosso (Tempo I) —
  6. Animato —
  7. Andante assai —
  8. Allegro scherzando —
  9. Poco più sostenuto —
  10. Più mosso —
  11. Animato

Described as extroverted, even showy, for much of its length, the concerto begins and ends with the same spacious D-flat theme. Its Andante assai section, in G-sharp minor, offers warm, veiled contrast: a quasi “middle movement.”

Premiere

The concerto was first performed in Moscow on 25 July (7 August), 1912, with the composer as soloist and Konstantin Saradzhev conducting. Saradzhev “realized splendidly all my tempos,”[2][3] wrote Prokofiev afterwards.

Rubinstein Prize

The 22-year-old composer-pianist won the Anton Rubinstein Prize for pianistic accomplishments in an 18 May 1914 performance of the work before the Saint Petersburg Conservatory.[4] He had proposed his own concerto for the programme, reasoning that, though he may not be able to win with a classical concerto, with his own concerto the jury would be “unable to judge whether he was playing well or not.” Competition rules required that the piece be published, so Prokofiev found a publisher willing to produce twenty copies in time for the event. The jury headed by Alexander Glazunov awarded Prokofiev the prize rather reluctantly.[5]

Recordings

This is a partial list. At least 62 recordings exist in all.

Pianist Orchestra Conductor Record company Recording date Recording location
Sviatoslav Richter Prague Symphony Orchestra Karel Ančerl Supraphon May 24, 1954 Rudolfinum
John Browning † Boston Symphony Orchestra Erich Leinsdorf RCA Dec. 1-8, 1965 probably in Symphony Hall, Boston
Gary Graffman Cleveland Orchestra George Szell CBS Masterworks 1966, possibly in March somewhere in Cleveland
Vladimir Ashkenazy † London Symphony Orchestra André Previn Decca Jan. 28-29, 1974 Kingsway Hall, London
Michel Béroff † Gewandhaus-Orchester Leipzig Kurt Masur EMI Pathé-Marconi Jan. 2-7 and Feb. 24-27, 1974 Versöhnungskirche, Leipzig
Gabriel Tacchino † Orchestra of Radio Luxembourg Louis de Froment Turnabout 1973 studio of Radio Luxembourg
Vladimir Krainev † Moscow Philharmonic Dmitri Kitaenko Melodiya 1976 Moscow
Viktoria Postnikova † USSR Ministry of Culture Symphony Orchestra Gennady Rozhdestvensky Melodiya 1985 probably in Moscow
Boris Berman Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra Neeme Järvi Chandos May 8–12, 1989 probably in Amsterdam
Vladimir Krainev † Radio-Sinfonie-Orchester Frankfurt Dmitri Kitaenko Teldec Jan. 1991 Broadcasting House Dornbusch
Yefim Bronfman † Israel Philharmonic Zubin Mehta Sony Classical Oct. 14-25, 1991 Mann Auditorium, Tel Aviv
Evgeny Kissin Berliner Philharmoniker Claudio Abbado Deutsche Grammophon Sept. 1993 Philharmonie, Berlin
Alexander Toradze † Kirov Orchestra Valery Gergiev Philips Classics live in July 1997 Mikkeli, Finland
Oleg Marshev † South Jutland Symphony Orchestra Niklas Willén Danacord July 30 to Aug. 10, 2001 Musikhuset, Sønderborg
Abdel Rahman El Bacha † Orchestre Symphonique du Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie Kazushi Ōno Fuga Libera live, Sept. 24-26, 2004 live in the Palais des Beaux-Arts de Bruxelles
Jean-Efflam Bavouzet † BBC Philharmonic Gianandrea Noseda Chandos Nov. 5, 2012 MediaCity, Salford, U.K.

† — Part of a complete cycle of the five concertos by this pianist and conductor. There have been relatively few such cycles (14 as of 2020) due to the diversity of the five works and their technical demands, and to the extraordinarily central role played by the conductor, such that a majority of pianists omit at least one or two of them from their repertory. The extant cycles are: Browning/Leinsdorf (Nos. 1 and 2: Dec. 1-8, 1965; No. 3: Nov. 25-27, 1967; No. 4: Nov. 27, 1967; and No. 5: April 25, 1969), Béroff/Masur (all: Jan. 2-7 and Feb. 24-27, 1974), Ashkenazy/Previn (Nos. 1 and 3: Jan. 28-29, 1974; No. 2: Sept. 30 to Oct. 2, 1974; No. 4: April 25, 1975; and No. 5: Dec. 9, 1974), Tacchino/de Froment (No. 1: 1973; Nos. 2 and 3: 1972; and Nos. 4 and 5: 1977), Krainev/Kitaenko (Moscow; Nos. 1 and 2: 1976; No. 3: 1981; and Nos. 4 and 5: 1983), Postnikova/Rozhdestvensky (No. 2: 1983; Nos. 1, 3 and 4: 1985; and No. 5: 1987), Paik/Wit (all: May 13–18, 1991), Krainev/Kitaenko (Frankfurt; Nos. 1 and 3: Jan. 1991; No. 2: Jan. 1992; No. 4: May 1992; and No. 5: May and Aug. 1992), Bronfman/Mehta (Nos. 1, 3 and 5: Oct. 14-25, 1991; and Nos. 2 and 4: July 8–17, 1993), Demidenko/Lazarev (Nos. 2 and 3: Dec. 19-20, 1995; and Nos. 1, 4 and 5: Jan. 2-3, 1998), Toradze/Gergiev (No. 1: July 1997; Nos. 2 and 5: July 1–7, 1995; and Nos. 3 and 4: July 1996), Marshev/Willén (all: July 30 to Aug. 10, 2001), El Bacha/Ōno (all live: Sept. 24-26, 2004), and Bavouzet/Noseda (Nos. 1 and 4: Nov. 5, 2012; No. 2: Aug. 8-9, 2013; No. 3: June 29, 2012; and No. 5: Sept. 11, 2013).

References
  1. Barbara Heninger. "Program Notes Sergei Prokofiev Piano Concerto No. 1". Archived from the original on 2016-09-16. Retrieved 2007-11-10.
  2. New York Philharmonic Orchestra program notes
  3. CD Baby
  4. "Sleeve note of the Supraphon CD (SU 3670-2 011)". p. 10.
  5. "Prokofiev Piano Concerto No. 1". Archived from the original on 2012-02-14.
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