Composed in 1882/3, Rimsky-Korsakov’s Piano Concerto was last of a series of works written in the very happy middle period of his life; other compositions of this period, rich in charming lyricism, included the opera The Snow Maiden and the orchestral Szakza (‘Fairy Tale’). The Concerto was first performed in March 1884 at one Balakirev’s Free School concerts in St Petersburg and was the last work of Rimsky to be wholly approved of by his erstwhile mentor. While the lyricism is still sincere and deeply-felt in the Concerto, the work also foreshadows the master artificer of the later years. Dedicated to the memory of Liszt, however, Rimsky-Korsakov’s is based on only one theme – No 18 from Balakirev’s seminal folksong collection which had been published in 1866. … It was towards the end of 1855, while he was still in his teens, that the brilliant young pianist and composer Balakirev was brought to St Petersburg from Nizhny-Novgorod by his patron A. D. Ulybyshev, and his first, very successful, public appearance was a soloist in this concerto movement in February, 1856. It is the work of a young lion who has thoroughly absorbed his sources, especially Chopin in this case (Chopin’s E minor Concerto was to remain a favourite of Balakirev’s all his life). Both the main subjects of the movement are heard in the lengthy opening orchestral tutti, and occur in piano solo versions after the entry of that instrument, as well as in many other forms in the course of the movement. The music must have been especially prepared for the performance, but afterwards Balakirev turned his attention to his Overture on a Spanish march theme given to him by Glinka, to whom he had recently been introduced, and to a very important Overture based on Russian folksongs, and so this delightful first movement was destined to remain on its own, for, by the time he took up his pen for more concerto writing, the experience he had gained in the works already mentioned as well as in the superb overture and incidental music to Shakespeare’s King Lear meant that it was to a new concerto that he turned.
This Concerto was started in 1861 and is in E flat major, the key of Liszt’s First Piano Concerto; Balakirev was also looking at Anton Rubinstein’s Second Concerto and Litolff’s Fourth at the time. By the end of 1862 he had completed the first movement and extemporized the rest of the Concerto to his circle, including not only Mussorgsky but Rimsky-Korsakov, who was particularly delighted with the result. But Balakirev abandoned the Concerto and could not be prevailed upon to return to it until 1906, and even then he died in 1910 having added in its entirety only the second movement; Sergei Liapunov completed the finale in accordance with the composer’s wishes which, as his closest associate in the later years, he knew well enough. …
Balakirev’s Concerto does not deserve the neglect into wich it has fallen. In spite of the half century or so it took to compose, it holds together well. And the heroic nature of the first movement, the solemn and intense beauty of the second and the scintillation of the third, ensure that the listener is treated to a wide variety of aural experience which adds up, in the end, to a satisfactory whole.
Edward Garden, 1993
Rimsky-Korsakov
Piano Concerto in C sharp minor, Op. 30
Balakirev
Piano Concerto nr. 1 in F sharp minor, Op. 1
Piano Concerto nr. 2 in E flat major, Op. posth.
Malcolm Binns, piano
The English Northern Philharmonia
David Lloyd-Jones, conductor
