Piano Concerto no. 1 in B-flat minor, op. 23

Letters to his brother Modest from 1874 record Tchaikovsky's plan for a concerto on Ukrainian themes and the slow, difficult work it cost him. The score was first dedicated to Nikolai Rubinstein, who told the composer to his face that he disliked it; Tchaikovsky refused to change a note, struck out the name, considered Taneyev, and finally inscribed Hans von Bülow. Bülow gave the premiere in Boston on 25 October 1875 and championed the work. Rubinstein later conducted it in Moscow and, by 1879, was playing the solo part himself. Benjamin Johnson Lang conducted that Boston premiere, called in at the last moment after Bülow fell out with the conductor first engaged, and the audience made Bülow repeat the finale. The Russian premiere followed on 1 November 1875 in St Petersburg, with Gustav Kross as soloist and Eduard Nápravník conducting; the Moscow performance under Rubinstein, on 21 November, had Sergei Taneyev at the piano. Tchaikovsky revised the score in 1879 and again in December 1888, and it is that last version, its opening piano part in chords where the original had arpeggios, that is normally played today.