Piano Concerto No.1. The grandiose nature of much of Brahms’ orchestral works is likely to have developed through the great effort and pain that went into composing it. True to character Brahms did not in any way try to please the musical taste at the time when he wrote Piano Concerto no.1. It is thought that the evolution of this concerto originally started as a sonata for two pianos which later developed into a symphony and finally, in 1859, reached its present structure as the Piano Concerto No.1 in D minor, op.15. Brahms composed and developed this concerto during the final years of Schumann’s illness.  Perhaps the slow movement, in a way, symbolises a requiem for Robert Schumann.

With Brahms as the soloist, the concerto had its public premiere in January 1859, receiving a muted, yet polite, reception. A subsequent performance in Leipzig with the Gewandhaus Orchestra, conducted by Julius Rietz and again with Brahms as soloist, received a hostile reaction from the audience. A prominent critic had nothing good to say and even criticised Brahms’ performance as a pianist. The concerto is enormously impressive in its symphonic proportions which, evidently, its first audiences found difficult to absorb.  It was really not until Clara Schumann added it to her repertoire that this concerto won wider recognition.