Prom 66
T1777683407
Part of the BBC Proms.
Archive :: production:T1777683407, concert:S0203084924, venue:V221
Beethoven, Schoenberg & Shostakovich
Mitsuko Uchida makes a welcome return to the Proms for Schoenberg's rarely heard Piano Concerto. It's a work whose 12-tone abstraction is tempered by intriguing autobiographical suggestions - 'Life was so easy', 'Suddenly hatred broke out' - scribbled on the original manuscript. Autobiography is also at the fore in Shostakovich's Eighth Symphony. Composed in 1943, at a particularly dark moment for Russia in the war, the work is a fragile statement of hope that the composer himself summarised as: 'All that is dark and oppressive will disappear; all that is beautiful will triumph.' Finish time approx. 21:45
