Piano Concerto No. 1

The Piano Concerto No. 1 in E minor, Sz. 83, BB 91 of Béla Bartók was composed in 1926. It is about 23 to 24 minutes long. For almost three years, Bartók had composed nothing. He broke that silence with several piano works, one which was the piano concerto. He composed it between August and November 1926. The work premiered at the fifth International Festival of the International Society for Contemporary Music in Frankfurt on July 1, 1927, with B... more

The Piano Concerto No. 1 in E minor, Sz. 83, BB 91 of Béla Bartók was composed in 1926. It is about 23 to 24 minutes long. For almost three years, Bartók had composed nothing. He broke that silence with several piano works, one which was the piano concerto. He composed it between August and November 1926. The work premiered at the fifth International Festival of the International Society for Contemporary Music in Frankfurt on July 1, 1927, with Bartók as the soloist and Wilhelm Furtwängler conducting. Jascha Horenstein was Furtwängler's assistant and prepared the orchestra for the concerto. The scheduled 1927 American premiere by the New York Philharmonic in New York, on a tour by Bartók, was canceled by conductor Mengelberg due to insufficient rehearsing. The Concerto eventually premiered in the USA on February 13, 1928 at Carnegie Hall, with Fritz Reiner conducting the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and Bartók as the soloist. The concerto comes after an increased interest on Baroque... less