Two Concertos: Barnatan Plays Shostakovich

Rafael Payare, conductor
Inon Barnatan, piano
Paul Merkelo, trumpet
San Diego Symphony Orchestra

R. STRAUSS: Don Juan, Op. 20
SHOSTAKOVICH: Piano Concerto No. 2 in F Major, Op. 102
SHOSTAKOVICH: Piano Concerto No. 1 in C minor, Op. 35
R. STRAUSS: Till Eulenspiegels lustige Streiche, Op. 28

Conducted by Music Director Rafael Payare and featuring pianist Inon Barnatan, this program highlights the humorous side of classical music in works by Richard Strauss and Dmitri Shostakovich. Strauss wrote his tone poem Don Juan when he was just 24 years old. The work, inspired by the same figure of legend as Mozart’s Don Giovanni, was the young composer’s first international success, while Till Eulenspiegels lustige Streich depicts the misadventures of the German folk hero Till Eulenspiegel. Shostakovich’s Piano Concerto No. 2, written for his son Maxim’s 19th birthday (and for Maxim to play at his conservatory graduation exam), is an uncharacteristically cheerful piece. Shostakovich’s wrote his Piano Concerto No. 1 during the height of his early career for himself to play; it is sardonic and tongue-in-cheek, quoting and parodying several well-known pieces.

Come enjoy a pre-concert talk covering highlights and backstories of this program, one hour before concert-time.

Guest speaker for this weekend: Karen Koner, SDSU Associate Professor of Music Education.

For this classical music concert, purchased drinks should only be enjoyed in the lobbies pre-concert or during intermission, but should not be brought inside the concert hall.

For Jacobs Masterworks concerts, only children ages five years and older will be allowed into the concert hall. These children must have a ticket and be able to sit in an un-accompanied seat.

Shostakovich Piano Concerto No. 1

Composed: 1933
Instrumentation: Piano, trumpet, strings

In 1933 he decided to compose a concerto for trumpet and orchestra. The trumpet is a difficult instrument to write a concerto for. Though it makes a brilliant sound, the trumpet lacks the range and flexibility of the piano or violin, and Shostakovich quickly sensed its limitation as a solo instrument. He brought in a piano to help things out, and the piano soon took over the concerto, pushing the trumpet into a secondary role.

Shostakovich was soloist at the concerto’s first performance, in Leningrad on October 15, 1933. Shostakovich’s piano-playing was praised for its clarity and precision, and it should come as no surprise that this music is suited so exactly to those virtues. The scoring – for just piano, trumpet and strings – is exceptionally light, with many extended sections for piano alone. The trumpet has some brilliant solo passages, but it plays a subordinate part here, used primarily for accent and piquant contrast.

The Concerto in C minor is remarkable for the kaleidoscopic variety of its moods. The music can be brilliant or somber, percussive or lyric, gentle or harsh, charming or sneering, changing almost by the instant.

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Shostakovich Piano Concerto No. 2

Composed: 1957
Instrumentation: Solo piano, two flutes, piccolo, two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, four horns, timpani, snare drum and strings

Nearly a quarter of a century passed before he wrote his Second Piano Concerto. The composer’s son Maxim, born in 1938, had developed into a fine pianist, and in 1957 he would graduate from the Central Music School in Moscow. As a graduation present to his son, Shostakovich wrote his Piano Concerto No. 2, completing it on February 5, 1957. Maxim gave the premiere on May 10, 1957 (his nineteenth birthday) with the USSR State Symphony conducted by Nikolai Anosov.

The Second Piano Concerto is brief (only about eighteen minutes long), challenging for the pianist – but by no means impossible – and charming. Shostakovich’s scoring reflects the music’s lighter character: he calls for normal woodwind and string sections, but the only brass instruments here are four horns – he dispenses altogether with trumpets, trombones, and tuba. The character of this music is clear from its first instant: a jaunty woodwind tune is quickly joined by the “pure” sound of the piano in octaves.

- Program notes by Eric Bromberger

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