Czech Philharmonic • Evgeny Kissin

Piano Concerto No. 1 in D flat major, Op. 10 (16')

Sergei Prokofiev

Much of Sergei Prokofiev’s (1891–1953) large oeuvre consists of piano music, including five piano concertos. It is no wonder that he was successful as a piano student at the Saint Petersburg Conservatoire, and his contemporaries sometimes regarded him more as an outstanding instrumentalist than as a composer. His mother taught him the fundamentals of piano playing, and he learned the basics of music theory from Reinhold Glière. He began composing at age five, and he continued to perfect his craft under Anatoly Lyadov and Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, again at the conservatoire in Saint Petersburg. According to contemporary accounts, Prokofiev was eccentric, self-confident, and an enfant terrible in terms of his opinions on contemporary music. His behaviour attracted attention, but also resentment. At the Saint Petersburg Conservatoire, he studied piano and composition as well as conducting, but the school clung to tradition and was not eager to support innovation. Despite this, Prokofiev seized the opportunity to play his own Piano Concerto No. 1 in D flat major, Op. 10, when he took part in the conservatoire’s piano competition in 1914, and he became the winner.

He began composing his Piano Concerto No. 1 in 1911 at age 20. Having initially conceived a typical concerto with multiple movements, in the end he was drawn to the idea of a smaller form, which he described as “a concertino full of the joy of life and with an amazing opening theme”. What ultimately emerged was the shortest of Prokofiev’s concertos, the Piano Concerto in D flat major. In it, three movements seem to be combined into one. It is this grand, romantically conceived theme that becomes the linchpin of the whole composition, heard at the beginning, near the middle, and again at the end. It would not, however, have been like the young Prokofiev if that sweeping theme in octaves were not followed by brilliant passages for the piano, letting the soloist demonstrate outstanding technique, virtuosity, wit, and sensitivity for dialogue with the orchestra. The composer’s handling of tonality is very sophisticated, but he did not go beyond its boundaries. At the concerto’s public premiere in August of 1912 in Moscow, Prokofiev himself played the piano part, and on the conducting podium was Konstantin Saradzhev, a musician of Armenian descent. In his diary, the composer noted that the event was an exceptionally pleasing success, and that he was asked to play several encores. Prokofiev dedicated the work to Nikolai Tcherepnin, his conducting teacher.

Elim Chan

conductor

One of the most sought-after artists of her generation embodies the spirit of contemporary orchestral leadership with her crystalline precision and expressive zeal. She served as Principal Conductor of the Antwerp Symphony Orchestra between 2019–2024 and Principal Guest Conductor of the Royal Scottish National Orchestra between 2018–2023.

Born in Hong Kong, Elim Chan studied at Smith College in Massachusetts and at the University of Michigan. In 2014, she became the first female winner of the Donatella Flick Conducting Competition and went on to spend her 2015/2016 season as Assistant Conductor at the London Symphony Orchestra. In the following season, Elim Chan joined the Dudamel Fellowship program of the Los Angeles Philharmonic. She also owes much to the support and encouragement of Bernard Haitink, whose masterclasses she attended in Lucerne in 2015.

Highlights in the 2025/2026 season include return engagements with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, Los Angeles Philharmonic, The Cleveland Orchestra, or London Symphony Orchestra.