Season Opening: Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra / Alexandre Kantorow / Manfred Honeck

For their appearance in Hamburg, they have chosen Johannes Brahms’s Piano Concerto No. 1. Originally conceived as a sonata for two pianos, Brahms soon realised that something larger was emerging from the music. Via an intermediate symphonic draft there ultimately arose – »terribly difficult and grand«, as he enthusiastically wrote to Clara Schumann – one of the most important piano concertos of the 19th century.

Dmitri Shostakovich’s Fifth Symphony, another work with a turbulent history, also features on the programme. The Soviet composer wrote it in 1937, at a time when, following severe official criticism, he lived in constant fear of falling victim to the regime’s »purges« – daily life during the era of the Great Terror. While the music appears outwardly to glorify dictator Joseph Stalin through triumphant gestures, it simultaneously reveals profound despair and inner conflict. It is little wonder that this emotionally charged symphony remains one of Shostakovich’s most frequently performed works.