107 by Dmitri Shostakovich. The most difficult part is performing under the orchestra. Mitchell Arnold, visiting assistant professor of conducting, agrees and elaborates. In this instance, I inherited Shostakovich's concerto as a way to showcase the work of Christophor as a concerto winner. All concertos throughout music history in some way pit the soloist and orchestra against one another, yet have them working in concert with one another.
All concertos contain elements of both meanings.
If one believes, as I do, the revised history of Shostakovich, then we must no longer view him as a stooge or tool of the Soviet State. Rather, I think his music pits the individual with choice against the apparatus of the State and its bureaucracy. One hook for the piece is to hear much of the accompaniment as a driving, industrial, mechanical apparatus, while the soloist represents the individual. I don't want to demean the music by framing it in such simplistic, political terms, but the sounds of the orchestra and the sounds of the soloists make it so easy and obvious to draw that conclusion. The remaining two featured pieces on the program are by Giuseppe Verdi and Symphony No. 7 in A Major, Op.92 by Ludwig van Beethoven.