Piano Concerto No. 2 in F Major, Op. 102

Composer: SHOSTAKOVICH, Dmitri
  • Shostakovich wrote his Second Piano Concerto, Op. 102, as a birthday present for his 19-year-old son, Maxim, in 1957.
    • Maxim, who was also an accomplished pianist, premiered the piece with the USSR Symphony Orchestra conducted by Nikolai Anosov.
  • Piano Concerto No. 2 is “unusually sunny and fun-loving” for the composer, which is likely partly because it was written as a birthday gift and partly because the extreme, harsh years of Stalin’s regime had finally come to an end.
  • Shostakovich wrote Piano Concerto No. 2 to be accessible to young musicians and not too technically demanding.1
  • Shostakovich is confirmed to have said that Piano Concerto No. 2 has “no redeeming artistic merits,” though scholars argue over whether he meant this statement or was being ironic.
  • Listen for – the imitations of Hanon piano exercises in the finale, which were added as a joke between father and son.2

Sources

  1. Harlow Robinson, “Piano Concerto No. 2,” Boston Symphony Orchestra, accessed October 1, 2025, https://www.bso.org/works/piano-concerto-no-2-shostakovich.
  2. David Fanning, Notes in accompanying booklet, Shostakovich & Shchedrin: Piano Concertos performed by Marc-André Hamelin and the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Andrew Litton, Hyperion 67425, 2003, compact disc.

Cut IDs

27516 41471 24480