In 1923 Bohuslav Martinů moved to Paris, where he established contact with his future teacher Albert Roussel. There he soaked up influences from modern music of the time and was able to achieve a synthesis of efforts by the European avant-garde with the intellectual and expressive traditions of Czech music. These influences are evident in the Concerto for Piano and Orchestra No. 1, H 149, dedicated to Jan Heřman. Martinů's enchantment with avant-garde Paris and (especially in the third movement) with jazz radiates from this work. It was written during the summer months of 1925 and, as shown by the manuscript of the piano part, the composer considered a different title - Fantasy - which however he rejected in the end. Apart from its jazz inspiration, the work is also an example of Martinů's returns to the past - to the times of Mozart and Mozart's predecessors. Unlike the brilliantly-conceived piano concertos of the Romantic period, here was born a playful concerto that does not aspire to the extreme contrasts of sonata form but accents wit and a flowing musical stream, with the natural consequences in terms of expression. Remarkable here are points in common between modern sensibility and contrapuntal technique. Classical form is wed with modern dynamics, harmony, and thematic development. The premiere was given on 21 November 1926 by the already-famous Jan Heřman and the Czech Philharmonic under the baton of Robert Manzer. In Paris, the work was first performed on 11 February 1928 in the Concerts Colonne, and Martinů commented on the occasion as follows: "It was glorious: the theater was crammed, full of people. Mrs. Osuská was there, almost the whole diplomatic delegation and the consul, all the critics, Czech ones and many French ones as well, and it had a great success. Mademoiselle Descaves played very nicely, although she is still quite a young girl, and she performed it from memory. The conductor Pierné is something of an old man now, gray. Everywhere he praises me. He was very satisfied and I was, too. [...] I had a box seat and among those who came to me there was my teacher Roussel. [...] He said that no new work had scored such a success in these concerts in a long time." Critics of the time shared that opinion.
Lenka Foltýnová, programme of the Bohuslav Martinů Festival's concert, December 7, 2003