Composed in 1882/3, Rimsky-Korsakov’s Piano Concerto was the last of a series of works written in the very happy middle period of his life; other compositions of this period, rich in charming lyricism, included the opera The Snow Maiden and the orchestral Szakza (‘Fairy Tale’). The Concerto was first performed in March 1884 at one of Balakirev’s Free School concerts in St Petersburg and was the last work of Rimsky to be wholly approved of by his erstwhile mentor. While the lyricism is still sincere and deeply felt in the Concerto, the work also foreshadows the master artificer of the later years. Dedicated to the memory of Liszt, it is indebted to that composer in its single-movement structure (akin to Liszt’s Second Concerto in A major) and in its virtuosic decorative pianism. Unlike the Liszt Concerto, however, Rimsky-Korsakov’s is based on only one theme—No 18 from Balakirev’s seminal folksong collection which had been published in 1866.