of the four he wrote, this one, no 2 is considred his finestL:
about:
Dmitry Kabalevsky's Piano Concerto No. 2 in G minor, Op. 23, originally written in 1935 (just a few years after he joined the faculty of the Moscow Conservatory) and then revised a bit in 1973,
is considered in some quarters to be the composer's masterpiece. It has all the characteristics by which we recognize Kabalevsky: 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.
The concerto is in three movements: 1. Allegro moderato, 2. Andante semplice, and 3. Allegro molto. At the start of the opening movement, the soloist enters with the colorful, lightly chromatic main tune after almost no orchestral introduction (the orchestra is limited here to just two bars, during which they do no more than set up the punctuated eighth-note feel of the accompaniment). A second subject appears in D major, offered at first by the piano without the help of the orchestra; this thin-textured, mostly two-voice idea sweeps gently up and down the keyboard. A driving episode in 3/4 time allows for some energetic cross rhythms, and an impassioned Adagio molto sostenuto for orchestra alone paves the way to the inevitable cadenza—written out in full by Kabalevsky.
The cor anglais invites us into the second movement, pianissimo, cantando, and undergirded with the hushed support of the brass instruments. When the piano enters a few bars later it does so with a completely different thought—a totally smooth melodic strand, that forms a striking contrast with the constant dotted rhythms of the cor anglais. Only at the end of the movement, after a swirling, triple-forte climax has been drawn, does the soloist take up the plaintive E minor idea that the cor anglais offered at the beginning.
The main theme of the finale is, in fact, the main theme of the first movement reorganized and freshly adorned to suit a new, marcato context. Kabalevsky indulges in one last più mosso plunge before the ultimate arrival at G major draws the curtain down