Maestro Mariss Jansons, piano virtuoso Yuja Wang, and the storied Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra take great delight in Russian repertoire in this spectacular concert—but not before a quick stopover in Italy for the beguiling overture from Rossini's La gazza ladra (The Thieving Magpie)! Energy and exuberance are on full display in fanciful slapstick passages from Shostakovich's Concerto for Piano, Trumpet, and String Orchestra No. 1, and in the vivid optimism of Prokofiev's Symphony No. 5 in B-flat Major—a masterpiece composed in just one month in the summer of 1944 that Prokofiev saw as "a hymn to free and happy Man, to his mighty powers, his pure and noble spirit.... I cannot say that I deliberately chose this theme. It was born in me and clamoured for expression. The music matured within me. It filled my soul."
