William Youn (piano) and soloists of the Mariinsky Academy of Young Singers

Frédéric Chopin’s Piano Concerto in E Minor was written in 1830 when the composer was a very young man, having only just completed his studies at the Superior School of Music. Chopin performed it at a concert in Warsaw on 11 October 1830, and then later at his first concert at the Salle Pleyel in Paris on 26 February 1832. He subsequently returned to the Concerto in E Minor when on occasion he wished to exit the close salon circle and appear before the wider public. The work is dedicated to the virtuoso musician and composer Friedrich Kalkbrenner, who assisted Chopin in organising the first concerts in Paris.
Robert Schumann said that if Mozart had been alive that would be the kind of music he would be writing. In the First Concerto one can, in fact, hear echoes of Mozart’s concerti in minor key, but it contains much more indications of the “dazzling style” of the early 19^th century and traces of the composer’s admiration for the romantic bel canto, which comes through in all of the lyrical themes.
With Chopin, the piano is not just a rival to the orchestra, as it was in classical concerti. It is a romantic hero who commands the audience’s full attention. In the first section – a muscular Allegro maestoso – and in the final Rondo the orchestra is still trying to seize the initiative, but in the second section – a wonderful Romance – it merely provides a delicate accompaniment to the virtuoso soloist.
Anna Bulycheva