FLOWERS IN CONCRETE
December 6, 2023 | Bohemian National Hall
Marc-Andre Hamelin piano
Philippe Quint violin
Sergey Antonov cello
Illustrated talk by Irina Knaster
Prokofiev – Sarcasms, Op. 17 (solo piano)
Prokofiev – Violin Sonata No. 2 in D major, Op. 94bis
Shostakovich – Piano Trio No. 2 in E minor, Op. 67
Despite the devastation of World War Two and the oppressive rigidity of Stalin’s Communism, exquisite artistic flowers continued to bloom in Soviet Russia. Prokofiev’s Second Violin Sonata emerged just as the tide of war began to turn in Russia’s favour, but it breathes air from another, far happier world. Elegant, lyrical, witty, and serene, it holds out hope of what might lie on the distant borders of possibility. Thirty years later Alfred Schnittke reworked music from his film scores into his Suite in the Old Style, a touching evocation of eighteenth-century Classicism, beautiful, but as Schnittke deftly reveals, ultimately impossible. Shostakovich’s magnificent Second Piano Trio, however, looks the worst squarely in the face. War, tyranny, terrible suffering – it’s all here, yet this work offers another kind of hope: that music can help the tears of grief to flow, and perhaps even provide resolution.