London Philharmonic Orchestra play Brahms, Bruckner and Shostakovich

London Philharmonic Orchestra

Brahms: Piano Concerto No. 1
Bruckner (arr. Skrowaczewski): Adagio from String Quintet in F
Shostakovich: Symphony No. 1

Stanisław Skrowaczewski: conductor
Garrick Ohlsson: piano


When his guiding light Robert Schumann attempted suicide and was admitted to an asylum in 1853, Brahms finally decided to act on his senior’s advice and attempt a multi-movement orchestral work. Partly a commemoration of Schumann’s demise, partly a wild fight against it, Brahms’s First Piano Concerto is frank, tender and impulsive. Shostakovich, too, felt the pressure of handling a large orchestra when he wrote his First Symphony as a St Petersburg student. But he created a piece of brilliant tragicomedy, so clearly suggestive of things to come, including the darkness that would infest his life just as it did Brahms’s.

Stanisław Skrowaczewski will be signing a limited number of his recently-published biography, Seeking the Infinite: The Musical Life of Stanisław Skrowaczewski by Dr Frederick Harris (available for sale at Foyles bookshop), after this evening’s concert. This will take place in the Level 2 Foyer, Green Side of the Southbank Centre.