Teodor Currentzis / Yuja Wang

The evening at the Auditorium Parco della Musica, part of the Symphonic Music Season of the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, celebrates two complementary visions of 20th-century Russia.

On one side, Prokofiev's Piano Concert No. 2, a work characterized by a musical language full of biting irony and sarcasm, as well as an incredibly challenging piano technique, mastered by Yuja Wang's extraordinary skill. On the other, the deafening silence of Shostakovich's Babi Yar Symphony: not just music, but an act of civil courage, a denunciation of anti-Semitism and tyranny.

The Piano Concert No. 2 in G minor, Op. 16, was composed by Sergei Prokofiev between 1912 and 1913. Divided into four movements, the concerto is one of the most difficult and fascinating in the repertoire for piano and orchestra. When it was performed in Pavlovsk in 1913, with Prokofiev himself at the piano, it caused considerable perplexity among the audience; listeners, although astonished by the technical difficulties, did not fully appreciate the frank and aggressive musical language, rich in biting irony and sarcasm.

Dmitry Shostakovich's Symphony No. 13 in B-flat minor (Op. 113, Babi Yar) is a choral symphony. First performed by the Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra in 1962, the work's title recalls the massacre of Jews in the Babi Yar trench near Kiev, carried out by the Nazis in 1941. The symphony takes its title from the first movement, in which the composer uses the text of Yevgeny Yevtushenko's poem of the same name, which commemorates the Nazi massacre. Fascinated by this poem, Shostakovich initially intended to create a cantata; then, drawing on Yevtushenko's other poems, he decided to create a five-movement symphony for bass-baritone, male choir, and full orchestra. The Symphony thus began as a condemnation of anti-Semitism and the Soviet regime.

Leading this descent into the "abyss" of the twentieth century is Teodor Currentzis, a visionary and radical conductor.

National Academy of Santa Cecilia - Symphonic Music Season - Auditorium Parco della Musica - Rome

Orchestra and Chorus of the National Academy of Santa Cecilia
Conductor: Teodor Currentzis
Piano: Yuja Wang
Bass: Alexey Tikhomirov

Chorus Master: Andrea Secchi

Prokofiev Piano Concert No. 2
Shostakovich Symphony No. 13 "Babi Yar"

Photo: the Auditorium Parco della Musica official site