Concerto No. 1 for Piano and Orchestra in B-flat minor, op. 23 (ČW 53)

Though between the author’s last (second) version of Tchaikovsky’s First Piano Concerto and its version performed now by the majority of pianists there are but two really significant differences, these are of fundamental importance for the perception of the form of the Concerto’s first and third movements and of the Concerto as a whole, as well as for understanding the composer’s style and ideas in this work. I remember how surprised I felt while playing for the first time the author’s last version with the P. I. Tchaikovsky Grand Symphony Orchestra under maestro Fedoseev, when I came to understand that the epic – or rather lyric-epic – first statement of the introductory subject (in the absence of the notoriously vulgar flamboyant chords and the three statements of one and the same theme in the same pompous fortissimo manner) puts everything in the right place. It is not only the theme that sounds in a new way; its development, and even the movement as a whole (!), acquires a different meaning and scope. Now everything has to be played in a different way, even the Liszt-like octaves – and you come to perform them ‘à la Tchaikovsky’, more melodiously, feeling keenly all the turns of his deeply human intonation.

In the finale, the unknown creator of the third ‘famous’ version committed an egregious musical mistake: the trio with polonaise rhythms was replaced by a strange ‘bit’ – one hardly could find a better word – without a necessary symphonic development (incredibly for such a symphonist as Tchaikovsky!). Indeed, it was a great luck to play the initial version!

Andrej Korobejnikov