In the spring and summer of 1921, the Russian composer Sergei Prokofiev was living the good life in a quiet village on the coast of Brittany. He wrote: “I get up at 8:30, put on a collarless shirt, white pants, and sandals. After drinking hot chocolate, I look to see if the garden is still where it’s supposed to be. Then I sit down to work. I’m writing my Third Piano Concerto.”

On today’s date in 1921, Prokofiev was the soloist in the premiere of the work, which took place in America, with the Chicago Symphony under Frederick Stock.

In a letter to conductor Serge Koussevitzky just a few days before the premiere, Prokofiev wrote: “My Third Concerto has turned out to be devilishly difficult. I’m nervous and practicing hard three hours a day. But let the maestro be calm. This is not a Stravinsky symphony—there are no complicated meters, no dirty tricks. It can be conducted without special preparation—it is difficult for the orchestra, but not for the conductor.”

Chicago audiences and newspaper critics gave the new Concerto a warm, if not overly enthusiastic, reception at its first performance in America, and in time, the Third—despite its difficulty—became one of Prokofiev’s most popular works with performers as well as audiences around the world.