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The public premiere of the concerto was given in Budapest on 9 November 1881, with Brahms as soloist and the Budapest Philharmonic Orchestra, and was an immediate success. This concerto is dedicated to his teacher, Eduard Marxsen. He wrote to Clara Schumann: "I want to tell you that I have written a very small piano concerto with a very small and pretty scherzo." Ironically, he was describing a huge piece. It took him three years to work on this concerto, which indicates that he was always self-critical.
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Brahms began work on the piece in 1878 and completed it in 1881 while in Pressbaum near Vienna. The Piano Concerto No. 2 in B ♭ major, Op. 83, by Johannes Brahms is separated by a gap of 22 years from his first piano concerto.
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