Tugan Sokhiev and Yefim Bronfman
Two works, two eras – linked by sombre drama and emotional power: Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 24, in the fateful key of C minor, offers passionate outbursts as well as gentle, intimate moments – performed here by Yefim Bronfman. Shostakovich’s Twelfth Symphony stands as a musical monument to the Russian October Revolution: heroic gestures and orchestral power lend the work captivating drama. The conductor is Tugan Sokhiev.
It was intended to be a grand Lenin symphony, for soloists, choir and orchestra. However, because Dmitri Shostakovich admitted that he had failed to “portray the benefactor of humanity in symphonic form”, the work ultimately focused on the events of the October Revolution of 1917. On the surface, the result was an epic portrayal of historical events, the first movement of which, Revolutionary Petrograd, was interpreted as a mobilisation of the insurgent forces. The title of the contemplative second movement, Rasliv, alludes to a place in Karelia where Lenin went into hiding following a failed coup attempt, while the third movement, Aurora, is named after the famous armoured cruiser that fired the starting shot for the armed uprising in 1917. It builds to a grand crescendo that leads directly into the finale: The Dawn of Humanity. It is likely no coincidence that this forceful final movement concludes with a manically repeated three-note motif, which Shostakovich had already used in his Tenth Symphony to portray Stalin, in silent remembrance of the countless victims.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Piano Concerto in C minor, K. 491, must have taken Viennese music-lovers by surprise, given its key, its uncompromising drama and its instrumentation, which includes trumpets, timpani and clarinets. The expressive power of the work goes far beyond mere entertaining virtuosity. Yefim Bronfman and Tugan Sokhiev, welcome guests of the Philharmoniker, perform the concerto. Benjamin Britten’s Simple Symphony provides a charming opener; in it, the composer, at the tender age of 20, reflects on his early childhood and youth through music.
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