Yuri Simonov conducts Prokofiev — With Lucas Debargue
Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra
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Cast
Program notes
Lucas Debargue's tour of Moscow continues from the Tchaikovsky Concert Hall, this time in a 100% Prokofiev program! Led by veteran Yuri Simonov, the Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra joins the virtuoso pianist to kick off the evening with the sublime Piano Concerto No. 2, before closing out the festivities with the Seventh Symphony, the composer's final contribution to the genre and a monumental farewell.
At its 1913 premiere, the Second Piano Concerto (dedicated to a recently deceased friend) was divisive, deemed by some listeners to be too futuristic: "The cats on the roof make better music!" After the original score was destroyed in a fire, Prokofiev reconstructed it ten years later, so heavily revised that, in his words, it "could almost be considered [Concerto] No. 4." In four movements with the first and final lasting longer than the middle two, the concerto evokes rapidly shifting atmospheres, somber and lively and full of irony—and the diabolically difficult piano part requires a pianist of Debargue's considerable talents!
Photo: Yuri Simonov © Ivan Smirnov, Lucas Debargue © Felix Broede
Lucas Debargue appears courtesy of Sony Classical.
