When he was a teenager in the early 1920s, Dmitri Shostakovich played piano in movie theaters for silent films. A few years later, he wrote a Piano Concerto that in places almost sounds like music he might have riffed for a Charlie Chaplin comedy. It's the rollicking, jazz-inflected Piano Concerto No. 1 by Shostakovich. We'll hear a powerhouse performance by Olga Kern (pictured) and the Nashville Symphony.
Episode Playlist
Hour 1
Gabriel Faure: Romance in A, Op. 69
Pieter Wispelwey, cello, Paolo Giacometti, piano
Henryk Wieniawski: Saltarelle
Ray Chen, violin, Noreen Polera, piano
Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston
Niccolo Paganini: Caprice No. 13 in B-flat, Op. 1 (the Devil's Laughter)
Rachel Barton Pine, violin
Rockefeller University, New York City
John Dowland: Excerpts from Lachrimae and Selected Galliards
The Phantasm Viol Consort, Laurence Dreyfus, director and viol
Wigmore Hall, London, England
Joseph Haydn: Cello Concerto No. 1 in C, Hob. VIIIb:1
Pieter Wispelwey, cello and conductor, the RTE National Symphony Orchestra
National Concert Hall, Dublin, Ireland
Hour 2
Heinrich Franz von Biber: Sonata No. 2 in D
The Seattle Baroque Orchestra, Ingrid Matthews, director
Sergei Rachmaninoff: Prelude in C-sharp Minor, Op. 3
Olga Kern, piano
Bass Hall, Fort Worth, Texas
Dmitri Shostakovich: Concerto No. 1 in C Minor for Piano, Trumpet, and Strings, Op. 35
Olga Kern, piano, Jeffrey Bailey, trumpet, the Nashville Symphony, Giancarlo Guerrero, conductor
Schermerhorn Symphony Center, Nashville
Moritz Moszkowski: Etincelles (Sparks), Op. 36 No. 6
Olga Kern, piano
Bass Hall, Fort Worth, Texas
Heinrich Franz von Biber: Two movements from Harmonia Artificioso, Partita V
Geoff Nuttall and Livia Sohn, violins, Christopher Costanza, cello, Pedja Muzijevic, harpsichord
Spoleto Festival USA, Charleston, South Carolina
Josef Suk: Meditation on St. Wenceslas, Op. 35a
James Ehnes and Amy Schwartz Moretti, violins, Richard O'Neill, viola, Robert deMaine, cello
Seattle Chamber Music Society Winter Festival, Seattle
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American Public Media’s Performance Today® is America’s most popular classical music radio program and a winner of the 2014 Gabriel Award for artistic achievement. The show is broadcast on hundreds of public radio stations across the country, including at 1 p.m. central weekdays on Minnesota Public Radio. More information about our stations can be found at APM Distribution.
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