Shostakovich and Stravinsky

Shostakovich’s piano concertos are two of the most beloved in the canon. The first is a riot: a rollercoaster ride through an assortment of wickedly entertaining parodies from Beethoven to cinema music. It demanding light-fingered virtuosity not only from solo pianist, but from solo trumpeter too. Three decades later, Shostakovich wrote a concerto for his own son Maxim to play. This retained the First’s sense of fun but combined it with perhaps the most tender, haunting music the composer would write in a celebrated slow movement.

Surrounding both Shostakovich concertos in this concert is music born in America. John Adams was inspired by Igor Stravinsky to write his concise but abundant box of orchestral stricks Slonimsky’s Earbox, while Stravinsky himself wrote his Symphony in Three Movements during the arduous final days of World War Two. The piece traces the feelings of despair and eventually relief across three movements, becoming a celebration of rhythm and ending with a raucously jubilant chord spread over six octaves.