The Prokofiev Piano Concertos

• October 2011

  

  Serge Prokofiev's five piano concertos are one of the greatest cycles of works for solo performer and orchestra, and this season the BBC SSO presents the entire cycle, performed by one pianist, the brilliant 25 year-old Russian Denis Kozhukhin.

  Spanning a period of twenty-one years, Prokofiev's five concertos reveal different aspects of the composers special relationship with the piano. This cycle traces Prokofiev’s career from his days as a precocious student in Russia, through his success in the West, and his final days in Russia as one of the greatest composers of the 20th Century.

  Each concerto accurately reflects the time and place of its composition and also demonstrates the many different facets of Prokofiev's music. With the exception of for the Fourth Concerto, which was performed three years after his death, all of these works received their first performance by the composer. With this in mind, the BBC SSO have chosen one pianist to perform the entire cycle, the young award winning Russian, Denis Kozhukhin.

  Launched onto the international scene in 2010 after winning First Prize in the highly competitive Queen Elisabeth Competition in Brussels, Kozhukhin’s muscular virtuosity and passionate musical intensity make him the quintessential Prokofiev performer.

  Highly individual works, yet all very much in the grandest Russian tradition, the BBC SSO’s cycle opened on 6th October with the most famous and most popular Concerto, the third, a work that sparkles with humour and is laced with lyrical melodies.

  Roger Wright, Controller BBC Radio 3 and Director BBC Proms said “The Prokofiev Piano Concerto Cycle is a very good example of where the BBC, and Radio 3 - and in this case specifically the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra - can take an audience further, and not simply give it what it already knows, and that is part of our public service, but frankly its also the fun element of discovery – so you take the audience by the hand and you lead them to a new place with confidence and panache.”

  Prokofiev composed his first concerto in 1911, a year of huge social change throughout the world and a period of varied and astonishing musical creativity. A century on, the BBC SSO presents a snapshot of that fascinating year. As well as the radical vision of Prokofiev’s first concerto, the series includes concert performances of Stravinsky’s Petrushka, Bartók's one-act opera Duke Bluebeard's Castle and highlights from Strauss's Der Rosenkavalier with an all star international cast.

  Denis Kozhukin interview

  Find out more about The Prokofiev Piano Concertos series

  Find out more about the Year 1911 series

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