MUSIClassical notes: Brahms Piano Concerto No 1 in d, Op 15

The Piano Concerto No. 1 in D minor, Op. 15, is a work for piano and orchestra completed by Johannes Brahms in 1858. The composer gave the work's public debut in Hannover, the following year. It was his first-performed orchestral work, and (in its third performance) his first orchestral work performed to audience approval. Clara heard a rehearsal of the concerto in Hanover in March 1858, nine months before the premiere there, and wrote to a friend that it "went very well ... Almost all of it sounds beautiful, some parts far more beautiful even than Johannes himself imagined or expected." The concerto was first performed on January 22, 1859, in Hanover, Germany, when Brahms was just 25 years old. The audience received it coldly. The second performance, 5 days later, was in Leipzig. The Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra was a leading one in Germany. It had premiered Beethoven's 5th and last ("Emperor") piano concerto in 1811. Felix Mendelssohn conducted the Gewandhaus from 1835 until his death in 1847.

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