The Full Works Concert - Thursday 25 September, 8pm

Catherine Bott celebrates Shostakovich's birthday with his playful Piano Concerto No.1 and a great romantic symphony from his fellow countryman, Rachmaninov.

Dmitri Shostakovich was born on this day in 1906 and Catherine Bott will play his Piano Concerto No.1 tonight. This dazzling work was something of an experiment. Shostakovich officially called it 'Concerto in C minor for Piano, Trumpet, and String Orchestra' and, years after he wrote it, he recalled that he'd initially planned to compose a concerto for trumpet and orchestra and then added the piano to make it a double concerto. 

As he continued writing, it became a piano concerto with a solo trumpet, which frequently interjects adding to the wit of the piece. The concerto unusually incorporates and parodies many other musical works including Beethoven's Appassionata Sonata, Rondo a capriccio and Rage Over a Lost Penny, as well as Haydn's D major Piano Sonata and Shostakovich's own works - Hamlet, The Golden Age, Christopher Columbus and folk songs, Ach du lieber Augustin and Poor Jenny.

Also on the programme tonight, the epic Symphony No.2 by another Russian, Rachmaninov, and a slice of Spanish sunshine with Albeniz.

Franz von Suppe: Poet & Peasant – Overture
Charles Dutoit conducts the Montreal Symphony Orchestra

Tomaso Albinoni: Oboe Concerto in D minor Opus 9 No.2
Oboe: Pierre Pierlot
Claudio Scimone conducts I Solisti Veneti

Sergei Rachmaninov: Symphony No.2 in E minor Opus 27
Vasily Petrenko conducts the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra

Isaac Albeniz: Seville (Sevillanas)
Guitar: John Williams

Dmitri Shostakovich: Piano Concerto No.1 in C minor Opus 35
Piano: Denis Matsuev
Trumpet: Timur Martynov
Valery Gergiev conducts the Orchestra of the Mariinsky Theatre