The opening of Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1 in B-flat minor, Op. 23 breaks all the rules.
Heralded by four mighty descending notes, stated three times by the horns, the majestic and expansive theme sets up the wrong key—not the home key of B-flat minor, but its relative major, D-flat. Even more strangely, the iconic theme never returns. Still, the Russian musicologist, Francis Maes, has written that “the opening melody comprises the most important motivic core elements for the entire work,” and “the themes of the three movements are subtly linked.”
We explored Tchaikovsky’s First Piano Concerto extensively in a previous post. This performance, recorded on October 24, 2025, features 24-year-old Russian pianist Alexander Malofeev with conductor Ivan Repušic and the Frankfurt Radio Symphony:
