Against the Odds! with Viktor Valkov, piano

Some music had to overcome great obstacles before becoming beloved works. Some composers faced the challenges of culture, gender, self-doubt, or political environment. All these works have a story rooted in struggle and triumph. Fanny Mendelssohn, Felix’s older sister, wrote more than 350 pieces, although most remained unperformed outside her immediate family group during her lifetime, and almost all of her music was unpublished. This includes the outstanding Overture in C major, which is now finding it’s rightful place in the orchestral repertoire. Serge Prokofiev’s Lt. Kije tells the unlikely story of a soldier brought to life by a clerical error, which grows into a grand lie and entire life history that must be propped up. (A satirical take on the Russian bureaucracy). University of Utah faculty pianist Viktor Valkov joins us performing Brahms’s early masterpiece, his First Piano Concerto. Riddled with inexperience and self-doubt, Brahms turned to others for assistance in molding the work, including Clara Schumann, who remarked after a rehearsal, “(it) went very well … Almost all of it sounds beautiful, some parts far more beautiful even than Johannes himself imagined or expected.”