Yannick and Bronfman
Thursday, December 1 8:00 PM
Friday, December 2 2:00 PM
Saturday, December 3 8:00 PM
Yannick Nézet-Séguin Conductor
Yefim Bronfman Piano
Prokofiev Piano Concerto No. 2
Shostakovich Symphony No. 4
Yannick conducts an athletic and thrilling program of great Russian repertoire, with two pieces that are extremely demanding for both orchestra and soloist. In Prokofiev’s “knockout” Piano Concerto No. 2, Yefim Bronfman earns raves for his “eerily relaxed mastery of every pianistic challenge: the crazed first-movement cadenza; the whirlwind Scherzo with its nonstop rippling runs; the spiky, hard-driven finale, with its keyboard-spanning leaps.” (The New York Times) Shostakovich’s Fourth Symphony is one of incredible power and forces. Written at the height of Soviet nationalism and shelved for 25 years under authoritarian pressure, the Philadelphians and Eugene Ormandy gave the tour de force its American premiere in 1963.