Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra: Triple Grandeur

Beethoven’s Triple Concerto has the grand scale, heroic rhetoric, and orchestral brilliance typical of his middle-period style. With its three soloists forming a detachable piano trio, set against the backdrop of a full orchestra, it gave Beethoven the opportunity to explore an enormous range of thematic ideas, instrumental textures, and tone colours. Shostakovich composed his Fifth Symphony in the wake of a chilling denunciation levelled against him by Stalinist government officials. Although the work seems to imply a traditional symphonic narrative of crisis and final triumph, the music may not be all that it appears. Completing the trio of grand works, Mahler’s Blumine, originally composed as the second movement of his First Symphony but soon discarded for being insufficiently symphonic and too sentimental, is a heartfelt serenade deserving to be heard and savoured.