Piano Concerto No. 2 (Kabalevsky)
Encyclopedia
The Piano Concerto No. 2 in G minor, Op.
23 by Dmitry Kabalevsky was composed in 1935 (just a few years after he joined the faculty of the Moscow Conservatory) and then revised in 1973. It is considered in some quarters to be the composer's masterpiece.
Its first performance was given in Moscow
on May 12, 1936.
It consists of three movements
:
Though heavily influenced by Prokofiev, the composer nevertheless maintains his own distinctive style throughout the work: sharp, bouncy rhythms and concise thematic building blocks, a well-spun, clever lyricism when the music turns from activity to melody, a clear-cut tonal scheme that nevertheless has room for more surprises and dramatic turns than one might at first suspect, and of course utterly idiomatic keyboard writing. The work demands a player with formidable technique.
Opus number
An Opus number , pl. opera and opuses, abbreviated, sing. Op. and pl. Opp. refers to a number generally assigned by composers to an individual composition or set of compositions on publication, to help identify their works...
23 by Dmitry Kabalevsky was composed in 1935 (just a few years after he joined the faculty of the Moscow Conservatory) and then revised in 1973. It is considered in some quarters to be the composer's masterpiece.
Its first performance was given in Moscow
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
on May 12, 1936.
It consists of three movements
Movement (music)
A movement is a self-contained part of a musical composition or musical form. While individual or selected movements from a composition are sometimes performed separately, a performance of the complete work requires all the movements to be performed in succession...
:
- I. Allegro moderato
- II. Andantino semplice
- III. Allegro molto
Though heavily influenced by Prokofiev, the composer nevertheless maintains his own distinctive style throughout the work: sharp, bouncy rhythms and concise thematic building blocks, a well-spun, clever lyricism when the music turns from activity to melody, a clear-cut tonal scheme that nevertheless has room for more surprises and dramatic turns than one might at first suspect, and of course utterly idiomatic keyboard writing. The work demands a player with formidable technique.