Shostakovich & Shchedrin: Piano Concertos

Denis Matsuev, Valery Gergiev, Mariinsky Orchestra

Shostakovich: Piano Concertos Nos 1 & 2
Shchedrin: Piano Concerto No 5

Wholenote Discoveries - November 2012
By the time this goes to print Valery Gergiev’s performance with the Stradivarius Ensemble will have come and gone, but we can look forward to Matsuev’s Koerner Hall debut in an all-Russian program on December 2. On that occasion the dynamic young pianist, winner of the 1998 International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow, will perform a solo recital of music by Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninov and Stravinsky. On the current recording he is featured as soloist in more recent Russian works, including the introspective Piano Concerto No.5 by Rodion Shchedrin (b.1932) which was written around the same time as Matsuev’s Tchaikovsky competition win. The disc opens with the familiar Piano Concerto No.1 which Shostakovich wrote in 1933, with it’s ebullient rhythms and obbligato trumpet and continues with his Piano Concerto No.2 from 1957. As the extensive liner notes in four languages point out, these works both reflect rare happy periods in the composer’s often troubled life. Their allegro and even allegro brio movements seem almost out of character to my ears which are more accustomed to the languor and angst of his later compositions (culminating in the final string quartet with its five adagio movements only broken up by the inclusion of an adagio molto Funeral March). Matsuev seems to enjoy this playful side of Shostakovich and embraces the jollity of these works in crisp and exuberant performances. The unfamiliar Shchedrin concerto is more pointillistic and subdued, with darker colours from both the piano and the orchestral accompaniment. It is an extended work – more than half an hour in duration – with a slow middle movement of touching lyricism and hints of gamelan melodies. The rousing finale uses modal scalar passages, but this time allegro assai, in a pianistic molto perpetuo, with orchestral interventions somewhat reminiscent of Messiaen, which builds and builds over a nine minute crescendo. The soloist’s playing is superb and Gergiev’s control of the orchestra outstanding. Like the virtuoso ensemble itself, the Mariinsky Theatre boasts wonderful sound and it is captured here in all its splendour. Concert goers at Matsuev’s upcoming Toronto performance can look forward to a similar sonic treat in the acoustic of Koerner Hall. David Olds

Since winning the 11th International Tchaikovsky Competition in 1998 Matsuev has established a reputation as one of Russia's leading pianists.
The last two years have been a remarkable time for Russian pianist Denis Matsuev. His first release on the Mariinsky label, featuring Rachmaninov's Piano Concerto No 3 and Paganini Variations, received widespread acclaim.
He toured throughout Europe and North America with Valery Gergiev and the Mariinsky Orchestra as well as performing with the LSO, Berliner Philharmoniker and New York Philharmonic. For his second Mariinsky release with Gergiev he turns to music by Shostakovich and Shchedrin.
Despite being a prolific symphonist, Shostakovich only wrote two piano concertos. His first features a prominent solo trumpet part which provides dialogue with the piano and an independent voice "commenting" on the music of the piano and orchestra. Shostakovich draws in numerous musical styles within the work and displays his usual wit and sardonic humour.
The Second Concerto, by contrast, is more unified, and is unusually happy and optimistic in nature for Shostakovich. This may be because it was written for his son, who gave the première, and has been described as showing "the composer as though his own youth had returned to him". The slow movement contains some of Shostakovich's most achingly beautiful music - almost Rachmaninov-like in its romanticism.
Rodion Shchedrin has so far composed six piano concertos, each signifying a new phase in his compositional development, as well as a double concerto for piano and cello and a substantial corpus of solo piano works. His Fifth Concerto is influenced by the music of both Shostakovich and Prokofiev.
Shostakovich has been central to the Mariinsky label since its creation in 2009. The label has released an award-winning recording of Shostakovich's Opera The Nose as well as critically-acclaimed recordings of the Symphonies.
The Mariinsky label's recording of Shchedrin's concert-opera The Enchanted Wanderer was also nominated for two Grammy Awards.

Price: $19.98