GRIEG PIANO CONCERTO
“The touch throughout was light as a feather, while also possessing steely strength.” The Independent on Lars Vogt
FRIDAY 17 JANUARY 2014, 7.30PM
ELGAR OVERTURE: COCKAIGNE (IN LONDON TOWN) (c.14 mins) GRIEG PIANO CONCERTO (c.30 mins) SHOSTAKOVICH SYMPHONY No.1 (c.31 mins) LARS VOGT PIANO DONALD RUNNICLES CONDUCTOR At the dawn of the Edwardian era, Edward Elgar took a step back and looked at the City of London. He didn’t see quite what you might expect; true, there’s plenty of pomp and pageantry, but it’s spiced with both quiet beauty and knockabout comedy – and tinted with gorgeous sunset hues. That same playfulness and inner glow gives Grieg’s youthful Piano Concerto its perennial freshness, and few pianists are better equipped than Lars Vogt to draw out the Concerto’s latent poetry. It’s followed by one of the most extraordinary explosions of youthful energy in all 20th century music: the teenage Dmitri Shostakovich’s brilliant First Symphony. Donald Runnicles reveals both the boy-poet and the raspberry-blowing prankster behind this deliciously deadpan masterpiece.
Photo: Lars Vogt by Felix Broede