Concertmaster's Collection
Who's on first? Everybody, it seems. Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra Artistic Partner Stephen Prutsman plays the solo role in Dmitri Shostakovich's First Piano Concerto, a high-spirited work with a rip-roaring finale and a special role for trumpeter Gary Bordner. Then there's Prutsman's own composition, "Curious Hymns and Cosmic Spaces," scored for a wind ensemble, piano, celesta, and "prerecorded sounds" drawn from nature, which was commissioned for the SPCO and gets a "first performance." And Beethoven's First Symphony not only shows off the imagination of the "young lion" making a statement in Vienna in 1800, but also shows off the collective ensemble skills of our SPCO players, particularly concertmaster Stephen Copes.

Music: Stephen Prutsman: Curious Hymns and Cosmic Spaces Dmitri Shostakovich: Concerto No. 1 in C minor for Piano, Trumpet & Orchestra Beethoven: Symphony No. 1 in C Stephen Prutsman, piano and director Steven Copes, director Gary Bordner, trumpet Julia Bogorad-Kogan, flute