Program
Piano Concerto No. 1 in B-flat minor, Op. 23 (1874-75; rev. 1879, 1889) by Tchaikovsky (1840-93).
Symphony No. 4 in C minor, Op. 43 (1935-36) by Shostakovich (1906-75).
The two pieces on the program were both composed by Russian composers. Students of Russian music can probably trace an arc for the development of the Russian repertoire in the intervening 60 years; to the less erudite they simply sounded like pieces from two different centuries - which of course they are.
Tchaikovsky's piano concerto is well-known, though not as popularly programmed as one would think (at least as far as my encounters are concerned). My last encounter was Joyce Yang and the New Jersey Symphony (very recent, October 2025), but the one before that was in 2016 (also with NJ Symphony). It turns this piece would be played at the BSO next week, with Seong-Jin Cho as the pianist. Perhaps the piece is popular again? Or I need to go out more?
A well-performed Tchaikovsky is exhilarating, and leaves the audience with a few hummable tunes afterwards. That's certainly the case tonight. Even though the piece is familiar, it was still amazing to see how the pianist's fingers move so quickly across the keyboard, pounding out one impossible passage after another. The balance between the soloist and the orchestra was generally excellent, except for a few instances here or there that the pianist was drowned out by the huge ensemble (we are talking at least 10 first violins here).
Abduraimov is Uzbekistani (or simply an Uzbek), and I am sure the first "world class" musician I have seen from that country. Before this concert - his NY Phil debut - Abduraimov also performed at many well-known venues, famously substituting for Yefim Bronfman and Leila Josefowicz in 2014. (Well, he doesn't play the violin, so he substituted a Prokofiev Piano Concerto instead.) I was assuming it was talent that managed to flourish despite its surroundings; not quite true, as he began piano lessons with his mother, and enrolled in Park University (in Parkville, Missouri) at age 15.
Per the Program Notes, Tchaikovsky showed an early version of the concerto to his colleague Nikolai Rubinstein. The way Tchaikovsky recounted it was that Rubinstein claimed that some ideas were plagiarized, and that only a few pages of the manuscript were worth saving (my words). Tchaikovsky turned to Hans von Bulow for help, and that explains (?) why the work debuted in Boston.
In another part of the Program Notes the composition is described as "more notable as an effusion of themes than as a tightly organized structure." Doesn't that in a way prove Rubinstein's point? For most people, of course, these criticisms don't matter. The concerto is just thrilling to sit through. Incidentally, the opening melody, introduced by the orchestra, would not reappear in the concerto again after a few minutes. A similar construct is in the composer's violin concerto.
For encore, he played Liszt's Paganini Etude No. 3. Anne knew it was Liszt, Google provided the title.
The Program Notes contains a lengthy description of Shostakovich's problems with the Russian authorities. It explains why the composition, first completed in 1936, was removed from its premiere and didn't emerge as a limited edition for two pianos until 1951, and in its full form 10 years later. Shostakovich himself claimed in 1931 that "there can be no music without ideology ...," so one can assume there are messages strewn throughout the work. Beyond the phrase "... always fascinating - if cryptic - in its narrative: a many-layered metaphor of Shostakovich's life and oeuvre," I couldn't find any additional insight into what ideology Shostakovich was trying to share with this composition.
The work calls for a large ensemble. I counted eight percussionists (Anne counted nine, which is the correct number), and two sets of timpani. There were also two tubas and a xylophone - they all got a proper workout. The first (Allegro poco moderato) and last (Largo - Allegro) movements were quite long (at around 25 minutes), the middle one (moderato con moto, probably the one described as "vulgar" by the Annotator) is quite short at around 10 minutes. The music was correspondingly loud. At one point I looked at my Apple Watch and it registered 94 db. And I was seated at around the middle of the auditorium. I can't image how loud it was for the musicians.
Noseda shaking hands with Huang at the conclusion of the concert.
I took this from Tier 3 during intermission while the chairs were being rearranged. There is a reason why there is a big gap in front of the brass instruments. Some passages in the Shostakovich were very loud.
Even without much understanding of the music, I didn't find the 60 plus minute symphony long. I do need to read up on the symphony a bit, though, before I hear it again.
This was my fourth concert this season - the prior three were unplanned late additions. Today (writing this Friday 1/9) we would go to Princeton for a NJ Symphony program.
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