Mily Balakirev – Piano Concerto No. 1, Op. 1 (1856)

Mily Alexeyevich Balakirev (2 January 1837 [O.S. 21 December 1836] – 29 May [O.S. 16 May] 1910) was a Russian composer, pianist, and conductor known today primarily for his work promoting musical nationalism and his encouragement of more famous Russian composers, notably Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky.

Piano Concerto No. 1, Op. 1 (1855–56)

Anastasia Seifetdinova, piano with Russian Phillarmonic Orchestra conducted by Dmitry Yablonsky

Mily Balakirev is best known today as the lead composer in the Russian nationalistic music group known as the Five, which met between 1858 and 1871 (the other members were Alexander Borodin, Cesar Cui, Modest Mussorgsky and Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov). As leader, Balakirev encouraged the compositional efforts of his colleagues, promoted the nationalist cause, and fought against what he saw as the Germanization of Russian music in the guise of the Saint Petersburg Conservatory. He was active as a composer, pianist, conductor, teacher and mentor until suffering a nervous breakdown in the early 1870s. Several years later, he returned to the classical music scene, minus the influence he had wielded previously. He served in the Imperial Chapel between 1883 and 1895, and devoted the years after his retirement to composition. He died with most of his music either ignored or forgotten. The exception is his piano fantasy Islamey, still considered a formidable challenge for virtuosos.

Balakirev wrote three works for piano and orchestra. Two of them are early—the one-movement First Piano Concerto was composed between 1855 and 1856, and the Fantasie on Russian Folksongs dates from 1852. Both pieces show a thorough understanding of sonata form and the strong influence of Frederic Chopin (the concerto could easily been composed by the Polish master). They also betray the penchant Balakirev showed throughout his career for taking extended periods to finish large compositions, if he finished them at all. He intended to extend both pieces into full-length works but failed to do so.