Both his first and second piano concertos were composed while Prokofiev was a student at the St. Petersburg Conservatory. As a young composer, Prokofiev wrote mostly works for the piano, as he was a talented pianist. He was also known, however, as a rebel who liked to experiment with Modernist music in order to shock his conservative professors. The youthful Prokofiev was often criticized for his "decadence," but was also in the same breath praised for the obvious imagination and creativity of his works. His Concerto No. 1 provides ample evidence of an early adroitness in composing for the piano and a desire to create provocative music.

The First Concerto was composed during 1911-1912, and was dedicated to the dreaded Tcherepnin, with whom Prokofiev studied conducting. He was the "dreaded" Tcherepnin because his harsh criticisms of Prokofiev's conducting were destined to haunt him for years (Prokofiev often complained of feeling like Tcherepnin was at his back, watching him; Tcherepnin had only been so tough with Prokofiev because he recognized his great talent, and wanted to prevent him from developing a swelled head). Under Tcherepnin's influence, Prokofiev was exposed to the works of the great classical composers—Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven—and it was probably Tcherepnin who was responsible for the classicism of Prokofiev's early works, in particular the first piano sonatas and concertos, and the "Classical" First Symphony.

The concerto received its premier in Moscow on August 7, 1912, with Prokofiev as the soloist. The reaction from audience and critics was resoundingly negative. The work was labeled "musical mud," the work of a madman. The ugliness and outcry at the premiere brought Prokofiev instant attention. Prokofiev would continue for years afterwards to be accused of decadence and modernism, which is ironic, since a strong thread of traditionalism runs through most of his works, particularly in terms of form and overall harmonic construction.

Prokofiev regarded this concerto as his first mature composition. It is a single-movement work in sonata-allegro form. As Prokofiev notes, there is an Andante inserted before the development, and the development is a Scherzo, with a final cadenza introducing the recapitulation. Although cast as a single movement, the inclusion of an Andante and Scherzo suggests that the work really has a broader symphonic dimension. The concerto contains much of Prokofiev's typical lyricism, especially in the Andante, but is at the same time a very sprightly work, from the dotted rhythms of the principal theme to the energetic cadenzas and rousing recapitulation.

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