Mark Walters - 6/1/2012
Shostakovich's Symphony for Strings is a magnificent piece, in which the composer truly lavishes in the full range of the strings, giving the violins luxurious harmonies against their lower 'cello counterparts, in particular. Though the piece is itself not as frequently performed as some of the composer's others works, the Symphony for Strings serves as a lovely complement to the main piece of this CD, which is the second piano concerto.
Shostakovich's Piano Concerto No.2 is, in my opinion, quite simply one of the finest pieces of classical music ever written, and this recording of it with the I Musici de Montréal Chamber Orchestra is one of the most well-known and revered recordings of it.
Perhaps one of the reasons this recording, more than any other, has become so well-known is because it involves not one, not two, but three generations of the Shostakovich family:
Dmitri Shostakovich, the composer; Maxim Shostkovich, his son, conducting; and Dmitri Shostakovich, Jr., his grandson, leading the orchestra as the pianist.
The junior Shostakovich has a virtuosic command of his instrument, much like his grandfather, and matches the frenetic pace at which the piece progresses in a way few are capable of.
The concerto's first movement - the allegro - opens in an uncharacteristically upbeat major key for the composer, at a march-like tempo, before rapidly descending into speeds that set the piano alight with energy. The music wonderfully plays between these faster, louder temperaments and the softer moments in which the piano plays alone, but like a lull in the storm, works well to bring back the entire orchestra in wholehearted fashion.
The second movement - the andante - begins much slower than the first, and far more sombre, with an incredibly beautiful introduction from the strings, before the piano emerges silkily once more, as elegant a melody has ever been written for the piano.
The final movement - the allegro - returns to the bright and brilliant tone and tempo of the first, reminiscent of Rossini's famous William Tell Overture.
Rare is the piano concerto that can with such talent contrast the faster speeds and happier tones of the first and third movements with the more contemplative and delicate middle movement. For that reason alone, this is a piece that is an essential for any classical collection, and this is the recording of it to own.