DMITRI SHOSTAKOVICH (1906-1975) Concerto no. 1 in C minor for Piano, Trumpet, and String Orchestra, op. 35 ca. 21 mins. Allegro moderato Lento Moderato Allegro con brio Following the death of his father in 1922, 16-years-old Dmitri Shostakovich had to help provide support for his family. He reluctantly played in theatres and composed music for silent movies, jobs in which he succeeded thanks to his improvising and sight-reading skills. Echoes to this short career of his can be found in his Piano Concerto no. 1. Different moments in the piece sound as if they are taken from the films of Chaplin, Keaton, or even Eisenstein. Shostakovich's dream was to be like Rachmaninov. Let us be clear: he did not want to write music similar to Rachmaninov’s - he was never fond of the ultra-Romantic style - but he aspired to a double career as pianist and composer. His first symphony (1926) met with great success, and when the following year he was selected to represent the USSR in the Chopin piano competition, it seemed that he was about to succeed also as a pianist. The jury, however, did not appreciate his modernistic way of playing, and he did not win any prize. Disappointed, he barely performed for several years. The piano concerto (1933), together with the preludes for piano op. 34, was to facilitate his return to a more active performing career. Originally, he wanted to write a trumpet concerto for his friend, Leningrad philharmonic trumpeter, Alexander Schmidt. As he worked, the piece became a double concerto for piano and trumpet, and eventually - a piano concerto with a prominent but secondary role for trumpet. The concerto is not written in the grand Romantic tradition of Tchaikovsky or Rachmaninov. It is modest in its dimensions, and rather than late Romantic sentimentality, it continues the neoclassicism of Stravinsky, Prokofiev, Poulenc, Ravel, and Hindemith. The concerto is played with no breaks between its four movements. The first movement, allegro moderato, is written in a modern version of sonata form. An introspective coda leads to the second movement, lento. This is a very slow, lyrical, gloomy waltz, with a short, tempestuous middle section. The trumpet plays only in the third section of this movement, with a heart-touching solo, reminiscent of the English horn solo in Ravel’s piano concerto, composed only one year earlier. The third movement is a short trumpetless prelude to the final movement; the allegro con brio is an exuberant celebration, combining original themes with quotes of folk and popular music, as well as of works by Haydn and Beethoven. “I want to defend the right of laughter to appear in what is called 'serious music'.” Shostakovich once said. “When listeners laugh at a concert of my symphony music, I am not in the least shocked - I'm pleased.” Oded Shnei-Dor
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