An experimental avant-garde and neo-Baroque spirit, explosive energies and almost untameable imagination: The youthful Shostakovich's piano concerto has all of this. Manuel de Falla's work is one of Mediterranean exuberance and enchanting impressionistic colours. And all of this featuring a marvellous Canadian pianist and a superb Hungarian trumpeter. András Keller and Concerto Budapest have already done a great deal to aid Hungary's rediscovery - one might even call it a renaissance - of Dmitri Shostakovich. This concert illustrates that intent, as three-quarters of the programme consists of works by the Soviet Russian composer. The youthful Shostakovich's Piano Concerto No. 1, written in 1933, features the trumpet in such a prominent role alongside the piano that it feels almost like a double concerto. Attending to the interplay between the two instruments at this concert are Canadian pianist Angela Hewitt, celebrated primarily as an interpreter of Bach, and Concerto Budapest's principal trumpeter, Gábor Devecsai. The other works of Shostakovich's being played are the three waltzes from his - light in tone, but far from superficial - Jazz Suite No. 2 and his Ninth Symphony, the playfulness of which earns it comparisons to Haydn.
Being played alongside Shostakovich's compositions this evening is a Mediterranean masterpiece: Manuel de Falla's ‘quasi-concerto for piano' Nights in the Gardens of Spain is the pinnacle of Spanish impressionism and brings Angela Hewitt back to the stage as the soloist.

Presented by: Concerto Budapest