Piano Concerto No. 1 (Bartók)

[1] The work was 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.

[2] The scheduled 1927 American premiere in Carnegie Hall by the New York Philharmonic, on a tour by Bartók, was canceled by conductor Willem Mengelberg due to insufficient rehearsing.

[3] The Concerto eventually premiered in the USA on February 13, 1928 in the same venue, with Fritz Reiner conducting the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and Bartók as the soloist.

The work, however, retains the harshness and dissonance that is characteristic of Bartók.

"[5] The concerto is scored for an orchestra consisting of a solo piano, two flutes (one doubling on piccolo), two oboes (one doubling on cor anglais), two clarinets (one doubling on bass clarinet), two bassoons, four horns (in F), two trumpets (in C), three trombones, timpani, two snare drums (one with snares and one without), bass drum, four cymbals, triangle, tamtam, and strings.