Piano Concerto in C-sharp minor, op. 30

Rimsky-Korsakov wrote his only piano concerto in 1882–83, at a time when he was reworking his technique through systematic study of counterpoint and form. It runs as a single movement in linked sections, and its whole substance grows from one Russian folk melody taken from Balakirev's published collection — a procedure closer to Liszt's thematic transformation than to the classical concerto. Nikolai Lavrov gave the first performance in St Petersburg in 1884. The piece stands almost alone in his output, which is otherwise dominated by opera and orchestral music.