RCO: Mariss Jansons and Yuja Wang: Rossini, Shostakovich, Prokofieff

The Chinese pianist Yuja Wang made her first appearance with the RCO in September 2010 in a performance of Sergey Prokofiev's Third Piano Concerto. Then 2003, Yuja Wang 'commanded full attention with her cross-border pianism and the magic of her imagination. Wang left the audience dumbfounded, scored a triumph and stole every heart,' wrote the Dutch newspaper NRC Handelsblad. She now returns with another Russian piano concerto in her fingers. Shostakovich wrote his First Piano Concerto at what was still a carefree time in his life, and this can clearly be heard in the piece. Particularly distinctive are the Haydn and Beethoven quotations. It is no accident that the concerto is preceded on this programme by Rossini's equally cheerful overture to La gazza ladra (The Thieving Magpie). The overture forms a sharp contrast to Prokofiev's monumental Symphony No. 5, which he wrote during the Second World War and which, according to the composer, expresses the 'greatness of the human spirit'. But Prokofiev would hardly be Prokofiev if a touch of irony didn't follow the heartbreaking Allegro. (C Major Entertainment)