It was first performed on October 25, 1875, in Boston by Hans von Bülow after Tchaikovsky's desired pianist, Nikolai Rubinstein, criticised the piece.

For this reason he showed the work to him and another musical friend, Nikolai Hubert, at the Moscow Conservatory on December 24, 1874/January 5, 1875, three days after finishing it.

If you knew how stupid and intolerable is the situation of a man who cooks and sets before a friend a meal, which he proceeds to eat in silence!

Then a torrent poured from Nikolay Grigoryevich's mouth, gentle at first, then more and more growing into the sound of a Jupiter Tonans.

In a word, a disinterested person in the room might have thought I was a maniac, a talented, senseless hack who had come to submit his rubbish to an eminent musician.

Having noted my obstinate silence, Hubert was astonished and shocked that such a ticking off was being given to a man who had already written a great deal and given a course in free composition at the Conservatory, that such a contemptuous judgment without appeal was pronounced over him, such a judgment as you would not pronounce over a pupil with the slightest talent who had neglected some of his tasks—then he began to explain N.G.

It has, moreover, been a long-enduring habit for Russians, concerned about the role of their creative work, to introduce the concept of "correctness" as a major aesthetic consideration, hence to submit to direction and criticism in a way unfamiliar in the West, from Balakirev and Stasov organizing Tchaikovsky's works according to plans of their own, to, in our own day, official intervention and the willingness of even major composers to pay attention to it.

First, he thought the writing of the solo part was bad, "and certainly there are passages which even the greatest virtuoso is glad to survive unscathed, and others in which elaborate difficulties are almost inaudible beneath the orchestra.

[11] While the introduction in the "wrong" key of D♭ (for a piece supposed to be in B♭ minor) may have taken Rubinstein aback, Warrack explains, he may have been "precipitate in condemning the work on this account or for the formal structure of all that follows.

The first performance of the original version took place on October 25, 1875, in Boston, conducted by Benjamin Johnson Lang with Bülow as soloist.

[13] According to Alan Walker, the concerto was so popular that Bülow was obliged to repeat the Finale, a fact that Tchaikovsky found astonishing.

[15] George Whitefield Chadwick, who was in the audience, recalled in a memoir years later: "They had not rehearsed much and the trombones got in wrong in the 'tutti' in the middle of the first movement, whereupon Bülow sang out in a perfectly audible voice, The brass may go to hell".

[17] Lang appeared as soloist in a complete performance of the concerto with the Boston Symphony Orchestra on February 20, 1885, under Wilhelm Gericke.

[13] Lang previously performed the first movement with the Boston Symphony Orchestra in March 1883, conducted by Georg Henschel, in a concert in Fitchburg, Massachusetts.

November 1] 1875[18] in Saint Petersburg, with the Russian pianist Gustav Kross and the Czech conductor Eduard Nápravník.

[citation needed] At that time, Tchaikovsky considered rededicating the work to Taneyev, who had performed it splendidly, but ultimately the dedication went to Bülow.

[24][25][26][27] The work is scored for two flutes, two oboes, two clarinets in B♭, two bassoons, four horns in F, two trumpets in F, three trombones (two tenor, one bass), timpani, solo piano, and strings.

This subsidiary theme is heard three times, the last of which is preceded by a piano cadenza,[28] and never appears again throughout the movement.

The exposition proper then begins in the concerto's tonic minor key, with a Ukrainian folk theme based on a melody that Tchaikovsky heard performed by blind lirnyks at a market in Kamianka (near Kyiv).

A short transitional passage is a call and response section on the tutti and the piano, alternating between high and low registers.

This is answered by a smoother and more consoling second theme, played by the strings and set in the subtonic key (A♭ major) over a pedal point, before a more turbulent reappearance of the woodwind theme, this time reinforced by driving piano arpeggios, gradually builds to a stormy climax in C minor that ends with a brief cadenza and an authentic cadence on the solo piano.

[29] The development section transforms this theme into an ominously building sequence, punctuated with snatches of the first subject material.

This time, however, the excitement is cut short by a deceptive cadence, and a longer and more elaborate piano cadenza appears, the second half of which contains subdued snatches of the second subject group's first theme in the work's original minor key.

[30] Russian music historian Francis Maes writes that because of its independence from the rest of the work, For a long time, the introduction posed an enigma to analysts and critics alike.

The key to the link between the introduction and what follows is ... Tchaikovsky's gift of hiding motivic connections behind what appears to be a flash of melodic inspiration.

The opening melody comprises the most important motivic core elements for the entire work, something that is not immediately obvious, owing to its lyric quality.

Tchaikovsky presents his structural material in a spontaneous, lyrical manner, yet with a high degree of planning and calculation.

The tempo marking, "andantino semplice", lends itself to a range of interpretations; the World War II-era recording by Vladimir Horowitz and Arturo Toscanini completed the movement in under six minutes,[35] while toward the other extreme, Lang Lang recorded the movement with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra conducted by Daniel Barenboim in eight minutes.

The oboe continues the theme, this time resolving it to the tonic (D♭ major) and setting up a brief coda which finishes ppp on another plagal cadence.

After that, the final part of the coda, marked allegro vivo, draws the work to a conclusion on a perfect authentic cadence.