Piano Concerto no. 1 in F-sharp minor, op. 1

Rachmaninoff was eighteen when he wrote the First Concerto in 1890–91, still a student at the Moscow Conservatory, and he dedicated it to his cousin and teacher there, Alexander Siloti. It was the first work he thought worth a public opus number. Traces of Tchaikovsky, Grieg and Schumann are audible, but so is the combination that would define him: long-breathed lyricism, restless momentum and virtuoso keyboard writing. He played the first movement himself in March 1892 under Vasily Safonov, and in 1917, with the later concertos behind him, rewrote the piece thoroughly.