Piano Concerto No. 1 (Chopin)

The Piano Concerto No. 1 in E minor, Op. 11, is a piano concerto written by Frédéric Chopin in 1830, when he was only twenty years old. It was first performed on 11 October of that year, in Warsaw, with the composer as soloist, during one of his “farewell” concerts before leaving Poland.

It was the first of Chopin's two piano concertos to be published, and was therefore given the designation of Piano Concerto “No. 1” at the time of publication, even though it was actually written immediately after the premiere of what was later published as Piano Concerto No. 2.

A typical performance lasts about 40 minutes.

The piano concerto is dedicated to Friedrich Kalkbrenner. While writing it, Chopin wrote to Tytus Woyciechowski, saying, “Here you doubtless observe my tendency to do wrong against my will. As something has involuntarily crept into my head through my eyes, I love to indulge it, even though it may be all wrong.” Undoubtedly, this sight must have been the well-known soprano Konstancja Gładkowska, who was the “ideal” behind the Larghetto from Chopin’s Second Piano Concerto.

Opinions of the concerto differ. Some critics feel that the orchestral support as written is dry and uninteresting, notably the critic James Huneker, who wrote in Chopin: The Man and his Music that it was “not Chopin at his very best.” On the other hand, many others feel that the orchestral backing is carefully and deliberately written to fit in with the sound of the piano, and that the simplicity of arrangement is in deliberate contrast to the complexity of the harmony. Robert Schumann reviewed Chopin’s concerti in 1836 for the Neue Zeitschrift für Musik that “Chopin introduces the spirit of Beethoven into the concert hall” with these pieces.

The premiere, on 12 October 1830, was “a success.... a full house.” There was “an audience of about 700,” according to the Kurier Warszawski. The concerto, with Chopin himself at the piano and Carlo Evasio Soliva conducting. The piece was followed by “thunderous applause.” Seven weeks later, in Paris, following the political outbreaks in Poland, Chopin played his concerto for the first time in France at the Salle Pleyel. It was received well, once again. François-Joseph Fétis wrote in La Revue musicale the next day that “There is spirit in these melodies, there is fantasy in these passages, and everywhere there is originality.”

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