Close-up: Brahms and Shostakovich

Russia’s recent invasion of Ukraine, which the orchestra strongly condemns, lends even greater weight and significance to the programme. After careful discussions with our musicians, it was decided not to change any of it, as there is no relation between the invasion of Ukraine and the Russian composers whose music we are performing as part of this programme.

For many years now, Concertgebouworkest musicians have been performing their own programmes in the Recital Hall. The intimate concerts in the Close-up chamber music series are organised by the Friends of the Concertgebouw and the Concertgebouworkest. The concerts performed here are given only once and can be heard nowhere else! 

Yefim Bronfman is serving as the Concertgebouworkest’s artist in residence in the 2021–22 season. Here he joins forces with four of the orchestra’s string players to perform two behemoths of the chamber music repertoire: the piano quintets of Brahms and Shostakovich. Brahms’s Piano Quintet in F major has been called the crowning glory of all his chamber works. Its melodic richness and tight structure have even inspired a number of orchestral arrangements. But there’s truly nothing like the well-oiled ensemble of a first-class string quartet and a star pianist. Shostakovich, too, was a great symphonist. Yet his Piano Quintet in G minor is a relatively light, almost classical-sounding work. It struck the right chord with the Soviet authorities in 1940 and even won the prestigious Stalin Prize.