BSO: Playful Shostakovich

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These charming variations on an original theme display the teenage Shostakovich’s increasing mastery of the sound of the orchestra and contain one or two surprises that must have shocked his conservative teachers. Shostakovich’s Second Piano Concerto stands miles apart from many of his other works in its sense of freedom and abandon. It is a gloriously free, wistful creation – an unrestrained delight from start to finish, particularly in the soulful and heart-rending adagio; opening with a cloud-shrouded string theme before the piano enters like the sun breaking through. The music from the ballet The Bolt is as accomplished as anything Shostakovich wrote. Overflowing with seditious charm and laced with the driest of wit, the suite is a whirligig of tipsy tunes, musical raspberries and slinky, laugh-out-loud rhythms. Bursting with energy and catchy tunes, the satirical parody Moscow Cheryomushki shows Shostakovich at his best when it came to light music and operetta. Mocking the corruption and idealism of the USSR in the post-Stalin era. The music, full of subversive undercurrents and parodies of the Russian musical cannon, playfully highlights the operetta’s wit, candour and insight.

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