London Philharmonic Orchestra

Johannes Brahms: Piano Concerto No.1
Interval
Anton Bruckner: Adagio from String Quintet in F orch. Skrowaczewski
Dmitry Shostakovich: Symphony No.1 in F minor

When his guiding light Robert Schumann attempted suicide and was admitted to an asylum in 1853, Brahms finally decided to act on his senior's advice and attempt a multi-movement orchestral work. Partly a commemoration of Schumann's demise, partly a wild fight against it, Brahms' First Piano Concerto is frank, tender and impulsive.

Shostakovich, too, felt the pressure of handling a large orchestra when he wrote his First Symphony as a St Petersburg student. But he created a piece of brilliant tragicomedy, so clearly suggestive of things to come, including the darkness that would infest his life just as it did for Brahms'.

London Philharmonic Orchestra
Stanislaw Skrowaczewski conductor
Garrick Ohlsson piano