Special Concert International Shostakovich Festival Gohrisch

Shostakovich’s two piano concertos are worlds apart. The lively humour of the first, which dates back to 1933, is reminiscent of music for the silent screen; indeed, the composer had once earned his living as a cinema pianist. The neoclassical second from 1957, on the other hand, seems unrooted in time. The composer’s own view was merciless: »I have finished a piano concerto that has no redeeming artistic merits«. Yet perhaps his words should be ...