Piano Concerto No.2 in F major, Op.102

A composer is not always the best judge of his own work. Shostakovich declared his Second Piano Concerto to be of “no artistic value” and yet, since it has turned out to be the last twentieth-century piano concerto to find a place in the popular repertoire, it is clearly by no means worthless. It is true that its aims are modest. Written in 1957 to promote the composer’s son Maxim in his career as a pianist, it has few pretensions beyond being amusing both to play and to listen to. It was first performed by Maxim – who was later to abandon the piano to take up conducting – with the USSR Symphony Orchestra on his 19th birthday in May 1957.

The thematic material of the first movement of the work, headed Allegro, compromises a kind of toy-soldier episode, with a cheerful march theme and a fanfare motif, and an attractively tuneful second subject introduced in bright octaves on the piano. It is the martial music that dominates, however, not least in a grotesquely humorous development section and above all in a broadly expressive orchestral climax just before the cadenza.

In contrast to the exuberant opening Allegro, the slow movement is a haven of tranquillity introduced by serious-minded strings and illuminated by a piano melody of romantic lyricism that it would not be out of place in a concerto by Rachmaninov. The last movement, which follows without a break, is in much the same mood as the first, except that it is inclined to run rather than march. Indeed, whether skipping or stamping, it is unstoppable in its headlong progress, a little indebted to Prokofiev perhaps but no less exhilarating for that.

Gerald Larner©2005