Johannes Brahms: Piano Concert Nr. 1 - Claudio Arrau, Bernard Haitink, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra

The Piano Concerto No. 1 in D minor, Op. 15, was composed by Johannes Brahms in 1858. The composer gave its first public performance in Hamburg, Germany, the following year. Brahms worked on the composition for some years, as was the case with many of his works. After a prolonged gestation period, it was first performed on January 22, 1859, in Hanover, Germany, when Brahms was just 25 years old. Five days later, at Leipzig, an unenthusiastic audience hissed at the concerto, while critics savaged it, labelling it "perfectly unorthodox, banal and horrid". In a letter to his close personal friend, the renowned violinist Joseph Joachim, Brahms stated, "I am only experimenting and feeling my way", adding sadly, "all the same, the hissing was rather too much." Brahms originally conceived the work as a sonata for two pianos. Seeking a grander and fuller sound, Brahms later orchestrated the work in an attempt to transform it into a four-movement symphony. This was, if not his first, one of his first attempts at orchestral writing, and he sought much advice from his friend Julius Otto Grimm. However, he also found that unsatisfactory. Brahms ultimately decided that he had not sufficiently mastered the nuances of orchestral color to sustain a symphony, and instead relied on his skills as a pianist and composer for the piano to complete the work as a concerto. Brahms only retained the original material from the work's first movement; the remaining movements were discarded and two new ones were composed, yielding a work in the more usual three-movement concerto structure.

"No one, I trust, will deny that Arrau has lived with, wrestled with, and in a truly terribly way 'known' the D minor Concerto for more years than most of us can consciously recall. where contemporary pianists have often tended to refine or domesticate the concerto, withdrawing it from the world of heroic endeavour, Arrau has always done the reverse. No pianist, apart possibly from Serkin in his several recordings, has communicated so formidably the work's scope: its seriousness and its anxious, tragic mood. Often Arrau makes free with the text. It is an uncomfortable reading to meet. But the vision is huge, the technique astonishing. Haitink is a worthy accompanist."

- Richard Osborne, Gramophone [11/1987, reviewing the original CD release of the Arrau/Haitink Concerto no 1, Philips 420702]

Tracklist:
1. Maestoso - Poco più moderato
2. Adagio
3. Rondo. Allegro non troppo - Più animato - Tempo I




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