LAHAV SHANI / MARTHA ARGERICH
We love, we adore, we revere Martha Argerich. The legendary Argentinian-born pianist closes the Festival with Prokofiev’s (highly) virtuosic Piano Concerto No. 3. At her side, Lahav Shani appears by turns as pianist and as conductor in the Russian composer’s Symphony No. 5 which also promises to be monumental.
Programme
SERGEI PROKOFIEV (1891-1953)
Piano Concerto No. 1 in D-flat major Op. 10 (arr. for Two pianos)
(Argerich, Shani)
Piano Concerto No. 3 in C major Op. 26
Interval
SERGEI PROKOFIEV (1891-1953)
Symphony No. 5 in B-flat major Op. 100
Martha Argerich plays Prokofiev: Piano Concerto No. 3 in C Major, Op. 26: III. Allegro ma non troppo
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A portrait of the artist in three episodes. In 1912, Prokofiev was still a student at the St Petersburg Conservatory. His first Piano Concerto (heard here in its arrangement for two pianos) astounded his teachers with the modernity of its writing. Ten years later, Prokofiev’s life had been completely upended by the October Revolution: living in France, he was now a virtuoso pianist touring the world. For a tour of the United States, Prokofiev composed his Concerto No. 3 in which the velocity and romanticism of his aesthetic reach their point of incandescence. The work is utterly diabolical: the Finale, with its deluge of white keys, is one of the most dazzling pieces in the piano repertoire. A change of era with the Symphony No. 5. We are now in 1945: Prokofiev, settled in the USSR, celebrates the Allied victory over the Nazis in a work he conceived as ‘a symphony on the greatness of the human spirit’. A masterpiece of universal power to conclude this ambitious 34th edition of the Verbier Festival.
