Dmitry Shostakovich. Piano Concerto No.1. Shostakovich composed Piano Concerto No.1 for piano, trumpet and strings in 1933.  Shostakovich wrote the concerto in four movements through which he gives a free rein to inspiration and youthful impertinence. This is especially dominant in the first and last movements which include several sections chained together, dazzling in its virtuosity and humour as it twirls around between the piano and the trumpet. The energy and rhythmic dimensions of these movements underlines and reinforces the strong contrast between the softness and tenderness so delicately composed in the second and third movements.

Sergei Prokofiev. Piano Concerto No. 3. During Prokofiev’s few years in America, he composed one of his greatest works, the Third Piano Concert, which fuses his lyrical sense with characteristically driven exuberance.  The clarinet opens the first movement with a Russian theme in andante, at once followed by the entry of the piano in an energetic allegro, introducing a third theme forming the basis of the movement. In the second movement, the woodwinds first present the melody itself through a theme with five variations. The soloist performs the first variation and the second is accompanied by a forceful piano part. The third leads to a calming andante mediativo and the blunt fifth variation is followed by the reappearance of the theme. The bassoon starts the melody of the last movements leading to two lyrical themes before the striking energy of the finale.

Igor Stravinsky, Petrushka. The name Petrushka or “Little Pierrot” came to Stravinsky one day while he was walking along the sea at Clarens. Typical of his less than solemn approach to musical tradition, he pictured “a puppet suddenly endowed with life, exasperating the patience of the orchestra with diabolical cascades of arpeggios.” In Paris, on June 13, 1911, Petrushka, the pierrot who survived murder to jeer and taunt the audience, was premiered with great success. Originally, however, Stravinsky had intended Petrushka to have a prominent part for the piano and thus it was of no surprise that he composed a version for this instrument. Three Movements from Petrushka, in some respect, follows identically the orchestral suites of the ballet. Stravinsky intended it to be deliberately virtuosic with its extreme demands, providing a showpiece both for the pianist and the composer himself.