Johannes Brahms's Piano Concerto No. 1 in D minor (Op. 15) is described by some as a virtuoso's showcase. After a prolonged gestation period, like many of Brahms's compositions, it premiered on January 22, 1859 in Hanover, Germany. Five days later, at Leipzig, an unenthusiastic audience hissed at the concerto.
Mendelssohn's Piano Concerto No. 1 in G minor (op. 25) was written in 1830–1, around the same time as his fourth symphony ("Italian"), and premiered in Munich in October 1831. He had already written a piano concerto in A minor with string accompaniment (1822) and two concertos with two pianos (1823–4).
The Piano Concerto No. 1 in B-flat minor by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Op. 23, was composed in November 1874 - February 1875 at the instigation of piano virtuoso Nikolai Rubinstein, director of the Moscow Conservatory. It was revised in the summer of 1879 and again in December 1888. The concerto is the most famous of the three piano concertos written by Tchaikovsky.
The Piano Concerto No. 1 in E minor, Op. 11 by the Polish composer Frédéric Chopin was composed in 1830. It was first performed on October 11, 1830, in Warsaw, with the composer as soloist during one of Chopin's "farewell" concerts before leaving Poland. It was the first of his two piano concertos to be published, and was therefore given the designation as Piano Concerto "No. 1" at the time of publication, even though it was actually written immediately after what was later published as Piano Concerto No. 2.
Ludwig van Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 1 in C major, op. 15, was started in 1796, and was finished the following year. The first performance was in Prague in 1798, with Beethoven himself playing the piano.
Franz Liszt composed his Piano Concerto No. 1 in E flat major (S/G124) over 26 years, with the main themes being found in 1830, while the final version dates 1849.
Piano Concerto No. 1 in F# minor, Opus 1, was composed by Sergei Rachmaninoff in 1891, when he was 19 years old. Rachmaninoff dedicated the work to Alexander Siloti. He revised the work in 1917.
Sergey Prokofiev set about composing his Piano concerto No. 1 in D-flat major, Op 10 in 1911 and finished it in 1912. It is the shortest of his five complete piano concertos, lasting only around quarter of an hour.
The Concerto in C minor for Piano, Trumpet, and String Orchestra, op. 35, was completed by Dmitri Shostakovich in 1933 and premiered the same year by the composer at the piano and the Leningrad Philharmonic Orchestra. Despite the title, it is a true piano concerto rather than a double concerto in which the trumpet and piano command equal prominence. The trumpet parts frequently take the form of sardonic interjections, leavening the humor and wit of the piano passagework.
The Piano Concerto No. 1 in A minor, Op. 9 by Dmitry Borisovich Kabalevsky (1904-1987), was written in 1928. Its first performance was given with the composer himself as pianist in Moscow on December 11, 1931.
