Program Notes

Dmitri Shostakovich (1906-1975)

Concerto No. 1 for piano and orchestra, Op. 35 (1933)

Scored for solo piano, solo trumpet and strings

Upon his graduation from the Leningrad Conservatory, Dmitri Shostakovich had a lot to think about. In his graduation recital he performed Beethoven's notoriously difficult Hammerklavier piano sonata, and as a requirement in composition, he handed in his Symphony No. 1. The young Russian proved that he was equally formidable both as pianist and composer, but which direction to go? No doubt he considered doing both. After all, it was working for Rachmaninoff and Prokofiev. Somehow, though, this lifestyle just didn't seem right for him.

It wasn't long, though, before his First Symphony was introduced in Europe by Bruno Walter, and in America by Leopold Stokowski. His Second Symphony followed in 1927, then, in 1930, his opera The Nose caused quite a stir and it seemed to Dmitri that he had found his calling. But these early successes had an unforeseen side-effect. Now that people had heard his music, they wanted to see him in person, and requests for piano recitals began to pour in. He was happy to oblige, and was able to fulfil his dual role as pianist-composer by including some of his own works in his performances. In 1932, he wrote a set of twenty-four preludes, which were well-received, and the following year he took the plunge and decided to write his first Piano Concerto.

The concerto is somewhat unusual in that it includes a part for solo trumpet that shares the spotlight. Apparently, Shostakovich had been impressed by performances of Alexander Schmidt, principal trumpet with the Leningrad Philharmonic, and decided to give the instrument, and Schmidt, a role. Its accompaniment for strings gives the work a chamber-music atmosphere.

The piece is filled with humor and contains throughout quotations and melodic parodies from the music of Shostakovich, as well as composers he admired. The opening of the first movement is a personalized quote from Beethoven's Appassionata sonata, and the finale opens with a similar treatment of the rondo theme from the same composer's Rage Over a Lost Penny . There are also quotations from one of Haydn's piano sonatas and Shostakovich's own music from the film Hamlet , among others. This diverse, almost manic collection of themes is handled with consummate skill by the composer. Not only does he manage a cohesive structure, but also succeeds in making it sound downright logical.

The next year, in 1934, Shostakovich's mighty opera Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk had its first performance. Many of the critics commented on how the composer finally had something deep and meaningful to say, after the frivolity of most of what came before. But Shostakovich, using the First Piano Concerto as one of his examples, insisted that even the seemingly lighter-hearted works were just as deep and humane in their way. This depth is easy to hear in the concerto's second movement which, for all its beauty, seems to carry a heavy burden, and in the third movement (easily mistaken as little more than an introduction to the fourth movement), which is similarly dark-hued.

But even in the capricious first movement and the horse-race of a finale there are those who hear in its wit and humor biting sarcasm and social commentary in the midst of the crushing and stultifying restraints of the Communist regime. The rest of us just have fun with it.