On a folded sheet of music paper, on the front side of which Chávez has penciled For Eugene and on the inside of which he has penciled a six-bar quote from his Piano Concerto, entitling it Concerto for the Piano with Orchestra / Carlos Chávez / Largo non Troppo. Underneath the quote the inscription: This line for Eugene List who premiered this work, In very kind remembrance and with much affection and admiration Carlos Chavez.

The Piano Concerto was composed from 1938 to 1940 and premiered by Eugene List with the New York Philharmonic under Dimitri Mitropoulos on January 1, 1942. The Mexican premiere did not take place until August 13, 1943, with Claudio Arrau and the Orquesta Sinfónica de México conducted by Chávez himself. Chávez revised the score in 1969.

The American pianist Eugene List became known as the "Pianist of Presidents" because as a young soldier in World War II, he performed before Truman, Churchill, and Stalin at the Potsdam Conference in 1945. In 1934 he gave the premiere of the Shostakovich Piano Concerto No. 1 with the Philadelphia Orchestra under Stokowski. List's great interest in Louis Moreau Gottschalk's music led to his recreation of the composer's Monster Concerts, where he featured many pianos and pianists playing together on stage.