NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra / Krzysztof Urbański
Stravinsky / Prokofiev / Schostakovich
When Prokofiev’s Second Piano Concerto had its first performance in September 1913 with the composer at the keyboard, the audience was appalled: »To hell with futuristic music! Howling rooftop cats sound better!« Prokofiev took bows as if he were being applauded – and played an encore. More than a century later, the concerto has long since been recognised as a masterpiece.
Thus the applause for soloist Anna Vinnitskaya will certainly be genuine. Since she won the renowned Queen Elisabeth Competition in 2007, the Russian pianist’s career has taken off in a big way.
For Vinnitskaya’s concerts with the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra, principal guest conductor Krzysztof Urbański has come up with a programme that is 100% Russian: in addition to Stravinsky’s easy-listening Scherzo »à la russe«, we hear Shostakovich’s Fifth Symphony. On the surface, triumphant music, but the work has a false bottom. After his Fourth Symphony had been denounced as »formalistic«, the composer paved his way back into the official Soviet music scene with its successor. But was the mood of rejoicing in the finale really meant seriously?
Performers
NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchester
Anna Vinnitskaya piano
conductor Krzysztof Urbański
Programme
Igor Strawinsky
Scherzo à la russe (Fassung für Orchester)
Sergej Prokofjew
Konzert für Klavier und Orchester Nr. 2 g-Moll op. 16
– Interval –
Dmitri Schostakowitsch
Symphony No. 5 in D minor, Op. 47
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