Shostakovich’s expansive Fifth Symphony and Prokofiev’s spellbinding Second Piano Concerto share the program of this exciting concert performed by masters of this repertoire: Valery Gergiev, the Mariinsky Orchestra, and virtuoso Russian pianist Denis Matsuev. It’s all part of Moscow’s First Annual Zaryadye International Festival, a landmark event on the world classical music scene bringing together Tchaikovsky Competition winners, celebrated soloists, and some of Moscow’s most prestigious musical ensembles.
Initially composed in 1912/13 during his studies at the St. Petersburg Conservatory and then later reconstructed in 1923 after its score was destroyed in a fire, Prokofiev’s four-movement Piano Concerto No. 2 is closely interlinked with its composer’s evolution as an artist over the course of the 20th century’s opening decades. Shostakovich’s Fifth Symphony was composed at a dangerous moment in its creator’s career, just after the failure and harsh censure by the Soviet government of his opera Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk. To the composer’s relief, the symphony’s 1937 premiere would deliver him a resounding success.
