Klaus Mäkelä
Leif Ove Andsnes Sergej Rachmaninoff

Sergei Rachmaninov (1873–1943) performed his Piano Concerto No. 2 in public for the first time in 1901. The concert was a great success, and within a short time Rachmaninov had a long list of commissions as a composer, pianist and conductor. A few years later, he felt the need to move from Moscow to Dresden in order to have the time and peace to compose. One of the results of his “seclusion” in Dresden was the Piano Concerto No. 3, which he premiered on his first tour of the USA in New York in 1909. The concerto begins with a simple melody, but gradually makes greater and greater demands of the soloist.

In 1935, Dmitri Shostakovich (1906–1975) started work on his fourth symphony, stylistically his most audacious yet. It was completed the following year, but before it could be premiered Shostakovich was denounced by the party newspaper Pravda, no doubt on the direct orders of Stalin. The Symphony No. 4 was withdrawn, and in his next symphony Shostakovich chose a much more conservative approach. With his Symphony No. 5 (1937) the authorities’ criticism abated, and the new symphony was also a triumphal and lasting public success.