Piano Concerto (Rimsky-Korsakov) - Overview

Overview

After a long hiatus, Mily Balakirev reappeared on the Russian music scene in 1881, at the first Free Music School concert of the 1881-82 season. It was Balakirev who suggested that Rimsky-Korsakov write a piano concerto. Rimsky-Korsakov was not a pianist. Nevertheless, as Rimsky-Korsakov wrote, "It must be said that it sounded beautiful and proved entirely satisfactory in the sense of piano techinique and style; this greatly astonished Balakirev, who found my concerto to his liking. He had by no means expected that I ... should know how to compose anything entirely pianistic."

Rimsky-Korsakov acknowledged his indebtedness to Franz Liszt in writing this work, dedicating it to him. Like Liszt's concertos, particularly the second, it is in one movement, with sections that contrast yet flow into one another without strict boundaries. It is also Lisztian in its virtuosic decorative pianism. Unlike the Liszt concertos, the Rimsky-Korsakov concerto is monothematic. Rimsky-Korsakov took this theme from Balakirev's collection of folk songs, published in 1866. He puts this song through thematic metamorphosis, again in a Lisztian manner, changing its character and style as the piece progresses. Another potential influence was the Fantasie russe in B minor for piano and orchestra by Eduard Nápravník. Rimsky-Korsakov had conducted this piece in Moscow during the All-Russian Exposition of 1882. Like the Rimsky-Korsakov concerto, the Fantasie is written in a free form, but uses three Russian folk songs instead of just one (including "Song of the Volga Boatmen").