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Genre: Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra

Shostakovich Piano Concerto No. 2

Boldly colourful orchestral painting by masterful orchestral composers.

Maurice Ravel was a skilled pianist, but is also famous for his sophisticated and imaginative approach which utilises every potential for sound the orchestra has to offer. Early on, he recognised the possibilities of combining the two capacities and from the late nineteenth century, he regularly orchestrated music that he had already composed for piano.

One of Ravel’s best known and most popular pieces for piano is the Miroirs suite, Mirrors, which is dedicated to various members of the French artists’ group Les Apaches. Ravel himself was one of the members. The group frequently met with artist and music connoisseur Paul Sordes, to whom the third movement, Une barque sur l’océan (A Boat on the Ocean) is dedicated. Ravel also orchestrated the movement Alborada del gracioso (The Jester’s Aubade) from Miroirs, dedicated to author and music critic Michel Dimitri Calvocoressi.

The working title of La valse was Vienne, and then Vienna. It is a tribute to the waltz and to Johan Strauss II. And the music is charged with whimsy and drama; it is humorous and ironic, disarming and brilliant.

Like Ravel, Dmitri Shostakovich was also a driven pianist. He composed his loving Piano Concerto No. 2 as a nineteenth birthday gift for his son Maxim, who was also a pianist and gave the world premiere of the concerto for his graduation from the Moscow Conservatory.

Konserthuset Play – Shostakovich Symphony No.10!
When Josef Stalin died in 1953, Shostakovich could exhale at last. His tenth symphony had its premiere performance that same year. The Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra and Chief Conductor Sakari Oramo perform one of his most personal works. Listen

Konserthuset Play – Shostakovich Symphony No.5!
With straightforward musicality and a heroically charged finale, Shostakovich’s Fifth Symphony was already a success at its premiere performance in 1937. We hear the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra and Chief Conductor Sakari Oramo in the composer’s most famous and beloved symphony. Listen

 

Boldly colourful orchestral painting by masterful orchestral composers.

Saturday 10 November 2018 15.00

Ends approximately 16.50

Price:

125-420 SEK

Chief conductor of the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra Sakari Oramo has unfortunately had to cancel his concert appearances on 8 and 10 November due to illness. He will be replaced by French Pierre Bleuse, who will be making his debut with the orchestra. Bleuse is also currently serving as guest conductor with orchestras such as the Orchestre de Paris, MDR Sinfonieorchester and the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande. He has previously been acclaimed for his appearances with the symphony orchestras in Toulouse and Bordeaux and performances at the opera in Lyon.

In addition to Shostakovich’s loving Piano Concerto No. 2, which was a gift to his son Maxim on his nineteenth birthday, we will hear Emmanuel Chabrier’s whimsical Bourée Fantasque, Claude Debussy’s elegant Petite Suite and Modest Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition, which were all in fact originally composed for piano and later arranged for orchestra.

Best known to most people is Pictures at an Exhibition, Mussorgsky’s evocative depiction of artist and friend Viktor Hartmann’s paintings, which were shown after his far too early death at the Imperial Academy of Arts in Saint Petersburg in 1874.

As soloist in the Shostakovich Piano Concerto, we will hear Aleksandr Toradze, who specialises in romantic and Russian piano music and has been acclaimed worldwide for his lyrical tone and unlimited virtuosity.

  • The music

    Approximate times
  • Emmanuel Chabrier Bourrée fantasque arr Felix Mottl
    7 min
  • Claude Debussy Petite suite arr Henri Büsser
    15 min
  • Dmitrij Sjostakovitj Piano Concerto No. 2
    22 min
  • Encore:
  • Domenico Scarlatti Keyboard Sonata in d minor K 32
    3 min
  • Intermission
    25 min
  • Modest Musorgskij Pictures at an Exhibition arr Maurice Ravel
    34 min

  • Participants

  • Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra
  • Pierre Bleuse conductor
  • Aleksandr Toradze piano

Saturday 10 November 2018 15.00

Ends approximately 16.50

Price:

125-420 SEK