Yuja Wang Records the Shostakovich Piano Concertos with the Boston Symphony Orchestra and Andris Nelsons

Deutsche Grammophon announces the release of Shostakovich: The Piano Concertos | Solo Works, featuring the electrifying artistry of Yuja Wang. The album marks the culmination of the Boston Symphony Orchestra’s decade-long, GRAMMY Award®-winning Shostakovich cycle and is released to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the composer’s death. It showcases the star pianist’s performances with the BSO under the baton of its Music Director Andris Nelsons of Shostakovich’s two contrasting piano concertos—No. 1 in C minor and No. 2 in F major (“Yuja Wang … navigated both works with conviction and fearless technique” – Boston Globe). Also included are six of Shostakovich’s Preludes and Fugues for solo piano, works which have been chosen by Yuja from the composer’s Opp. 34 & 87, and which offer a more intimate glimpse into his pianistic world.  

Recorded at Boston’s Symphony Hall by a team headed by legendary Hollywood producer Shawn Murphy and BSO lead recording engineer Nick Squire, the album will be released in standalone digital, CD and vinyl formats on May 2. The Andante from Piano Concerto No. 2 is available digitally from March 14, while the Prelude in A minor, Op. 87/2a will be issued on April 11. Yuja’s concerto recordings will also form part of the BSO’s comprehensive Shostakovich anthology, which contains all 15 symphonies, key incidental works, new recordings of the complete piano, violin, and cello concertos—the latter with soloists Baiba Skride and Yo-Yo Ma respectively—and the first commercial audio release in over 20 years of the composer’s only full-length opera, Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District. The anthology is released digitally and as a 19-CD box set on March 28.  

Shostakovich’s Piano Concerto No. 1 in C minor is a work brimming with youthful energy and sardonic wit. Composed in 1933, shortly after the completion of Lady Macbeth and during a period of relative personal tranquility, it represents a fascinating blend of styles and influences. Originally conceived as a trumpet concerto, it was eventually expanded by the composer into a double concerto for piano and trumpet, accompanied by a string orchestra. This unusual instrumentation, combined with Shostakovich’s characteristic humour and penchant for musical parody—here including sly references to Beethoven, Haydn, and even popular tunes—results in a work both virtuosic and playfully subversive. 

The interplay between Yuja’s piano and BSO principal Thomas Rolfs’ characterful trumpet, backed by the vibrant BSO strings, is pure delight. As the pianist herself observes, “Every time I take it up, it feels like there’s another layer of dark humor to come out … there’s so much making fun of Beethoven, of Bach, of almost everything we know.” 

“Yuja Wang is a truly extraordinary musician,” says Nelsons. “We are thrilled to share this recording as part of our complete Shostakovich box set with Deutsche Grammophon, and the Boston Symphony Orchestra and I are immensely grateful to Yuja for joining us on this landmark project. Her joyful interplay with the BSO’s brilliant principal trumpet, Tom Rolfs, brings out the humor and pathos of the First Concerto, while she masters the cinematic sweep of the Second Concerto with effortless elegance and bravura. Yuja’s technical brilliance and boundless musical energy are a perfect match for the genius of Shostakovich’s music, which contains the breadth of the human experience in the twentieth century and beyond.” 

Almost a quarter of a century separates the First Concerto from its successor—a period of immense personal and political turmoil for Shostakovich, shaped by purges, war and the resurgence of Stalinist repression. Such darkness is not, however, reflected in the Piano Concerto No. 2 in F major, composed in 1957 as a 19th-birthday gift for his son Maxim. 

Yuja’s performance captures the light, often jokey mood of the outer movements—revealing, as she notes, Shostakovich’s “shy, kind of quiet, childish” nature—as well as the tender lyricism of the central slow movement. The BSO, under Nelsons’ assured direction, provides a rich and supportive backdrop that allows her nuanced playing to shine. 

The album concludes with six works chosen from two sets of solo pieces: the 24 Preludes, Op. 34, influenced by Prokofiev and contemporaneous with the First Concerto, and the 24 Preludes and Fugues, Op. 87 of 1950–51—a highly original 20th-century tribute to Bach. Yuja’s technical command and expressive range are perfectly suited to the demands of this music, bringing out the intricate counterpoint and emotional weight of these often-overlooked gems. 

Taken as a whole, this album is a testament to the deep connection felt by Yuja Wang, the BSO, and Andris Nelsons to this composer’s music, and a fitting culmination to a remarkable Shostakovich cycle.