大象传媒

Sergei Prokofiev wrote his second piano concerto in 1912-1913 while still a student at the St Petersburg conservatory and premiered it with himself as soloist. The work was dedicated to his friend and fellow student Maximilian Schmidthof who took his own life just as Prokofiev was completing the score. It鈥檚 a work which makes fierce technical demands on the soloist - not least in the work鈥檚 cadenzas.

In neutral Denmark during the First World War, Carl Nielsen, looked on in horror as Europe was torn apart. The composer鈥檚 Symphony No. 4 erupts in violence, forcing two sets of drums to tear into one another from either side of a fissile orchestra. Before that we enter an oasis of calm courtesy of composer Daniel Kidane, whose Be Still is a reflection on a common experience of spring 2020 in which time itself appeared to stand still.

Nikolai Lugansky鈥檚 performance has been postponed and the 大象传媒 SO is grateful to Denis Kozhukhin for stepping in at short notice. Prokofiev鈥檚 Piano Concerto No. 2 replaces Medtner鈥檚 Piano Concerto No. 2.