Shostakovich: Piano Concertos Nos. 1 & 2 and String Quartet No. 8 Boris Giltburg

• Dmitri Shostakovich (1906 - 1975): Piano Concerto No. 1 in C Minor, Op. 35:
• 1 I. Allegro moderato 06:12
• 2 II. Lento 08:14
• 3 III. Moderato - 01:56
• 4 IV. Allegro con brio 07:01
• String Quartet No. 2 in A Major, Op. 68:
• 5 III. Waltz: Allegro (arr. B. Giltburg for piano) 05:56
• Piano Concerto No. 2 in F Major, Op. 102:
• 6 I. Allegro 07:30
• 7 II. Andante 06:59
• 8 III. Allegro 05:30
• String Quartet No. 8 in C Minor, Op. 110 (Arr. B. Giltburg for Piano):
• 9 I. Largo - 04:39
• 10 II. Allegro molto - 03:07
• 11 III. Allegretto - 04:08
• 12 IV. Largo - 04:46
• 13 V. Largo 03:48
• Total Runtime 01:09:46

Info for Shostakovich: Piano Concertos Nos. 1 & 2 and String Quartet No. 8

Shostakovich’s two Piano Concertos span a period of almost thirty years. The youthful First Piano Concerto is a masterful example of eclecticism, its inscrutable humour and seriousness allied to virtuoso writing enhanced by the rôle for solo trumpet. Written as a birthday present for his son Maxim, the Second Piano Concerto is light-spirited with a hauntingly beautiful slow movement. With the permission of the composer’s family, Boris Giltburg has arranged the exceptionally dark, deeply personal and powerful String Quartet No. 8, thereby establishing a major Shostakovich solo piano composition.

„Winning the prestigious Queen Elisabeth Competition in 2013 launched the Moscow-born pianist, Boris Giltburg, on a career now taking him around the world. With a long-term recording contract with Naxos, his performances of the two piano concertos complement the label’s complete Shostakovich symphony cycle from Vasily Petrenko and the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra. Separated by almost thirty years they are very differing works, the First, from 1933, being a rather curious mix of introverted thoughts of despair in the central two movements, countered by a finale of pure fun and joy, the keyboard joined by a chirpy solo trumpet in passages of knockabout burlesque. The Second concerto came after traumatic years in his career, and was composed as a Nineteenth birthday present for his son, Maxim, who was to be the soloist in its premiere. Two energized outer movements surround a second movement laced with melancholy and containing the most beautiful melody he ever wrote. Giltburg takes a lightweight approach to the finale and is not quite as successful as Petrenko in sustaining the passage with five beats to the bar, the trap being to unwittingly slip into the normal six beats, even the composer’s recording is not perfect. Thus far it is strongly recommended, though your choice, from the many versions already available, may well be decided by the coupling, here largely given to Giltburg’s piano transcription of the Eighth String Quartet, which we also well know in Barshai’s version for string orchestra. Probably being a violinist makes it all wrong, the intrinsic sound of a piano often bringing an unwanted warmth to the music, though I guess pianists may well think differently. Certainly here, and in the excerpt from the Second Quartet, Giltburg’s playing is superb, and his arrangements well considered. The sound engineering in Liverpool is excellent, though it does appear to have been used to help in achieving the quiet passage in the opening movement of the First Concerto.“ (David’s Review Corner)

Boris Giltburg, piano
Rhys Owens, trumpet
Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra
Vasily Petrenko, conductor

Boris Giltburg
Born in 1984 in Moscow, Boris Giltburg began his piano studies with his mother at the age of five. He has lived in Tel Aviv since early childhood, where he studied with Arie Vardi. He has received many awards for international competitions, notably at Santander (top prize and Audience Prize, 2002) and the Rubinstein (2nd prize and Best Classical Concerto, 2011). In 2013 he received First Prize at the Queen Elisabeth Competition in Brussels, as a result of which his already flourishing international career has been catapulted to a new level, with a packed diary of additional concert engagements across the globe. In the same year he was nominated for a Classic Brit (Critics’ Award).

Since his breakthrough appearance with the Philharmonia in 2007, Giltburg has been an annual visitor to the Royal Festival Hall in London, and made his BBC Proms debut in 2010 with the BBC Scottish Symphony. Last season he made his first concerto appearance in the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, with the Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra, and gave his London Philharmonic debut. He is a popular guest with many UK orchestras and has also appeared with DSO Berlin, Frankfurt Radio Symphony, Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse, Royal Flemish Philharmonic, Swedish Radio Symphony, Danish Radio Symphony, Prague Symphony, to name a few. In autumn 2013 he plays for the first time at the Vienna Musikverein and debuts with the St Petersburg Philharmonic.

Giltburg made his debut with the Israel Philharmonic in February 2005, and regularly appears with all the major orchestras and in the leading recital series in Israel, as well as playing chamber music with members of the Israel Philharmonic. Having toured the USA as a teenager with the Israel Chamber, he made his North American orchestra debut in 2007 with the Indianapolis Symphony. In January 2014 he appears with the Seattle Symphony, and in 2015 with the Baltimore Symphony. He made his Tokyo debut in 2005, toured China for the first time in 2007, returning to give a recital at the NCPA in Beijing last season, and he played with the Hong Kong Philharmonic in 2010. He has toured South America several times every season since 2002. He has collaborated with conductors such as Alsop, Brabbins, De Waart, Dohnanyi, Entremont, Fedoseyev, Neeme Jaervi, Karabits, Krivine, Lintu, Luisotti, Petrenko, Saraste, Segerstam, Sokhiev, Soustrot, and Tortelier.

Giltburg has played recitals to audiences across Europe in major venues such as the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, Vienna Konzerthaus, Munich Herkulessaal, Paris Louvre, Zurich Tonhalle, Wigmore Hall, Teatro San Carlo in Naples and Madrid Sony Auditorium. Festival appearances have included the Klavierfest am Ruhr, Schwetzingen, Luzern, Piano aux Jacobins and Cheltenham. Highlights of 2013/14 include recitals at the Leipzig Gewandhaus, Brussels Palais des Beaux-Arts, and a return to London’s Southbank Centre (International Piano Series).

In August 2012 Giltburg released the Prokofiev ‘War’ sonatas on the Orchid label to excellent reviews worldwide, and appearing in Gramophone as ‘Editor’s Choice’: “These performances of Prokofiev’s three ‘War’ Sonatas eclipse all others on record – even those tirelessly and justifiably celebrated performances by Richter and Gilels” (Gramophone, October 2012). For his next CD release (September 2013) he has recorded sonatas by Rachmaninov, Liszt and Grieg.

Booklet for Shostakovich: Piano Concertos Nos. 1 & 2 and String Quartet No. 8