The pianist Boris Giltburg is the soloist for the concerts of April 3rd and 4th, 2025, performed by the "George Enescu" Philharmonic Orchestra.

Mr. Boris Giltburg, you are performing for the second time with the "George Enescu" Philharmonic Orchestra this week, after your debut last year on the stage of the Romanian Athenaeum. How was your reunion with the ensemble and how are your rehearsals with conductor Leo Hussain going?

It was great to be back in Bucharest, I have very fond memories of our collaboration last year. We played Tchaikovsky's Concerto No. 1 then and I found the orchestra very musical, with a very rich and warm sound. Now, having heard them in the orchestral score of the Shostakovich Concerto, I can say that they play it just as well. So it's a pleasure to work with them, they are very open, collegial and flexible to my and the conductor's requirements. It's a very pleasant rehearsal atmosphere and I look forward to our concerts together.

In recent years you have devoted your work, among other things, to exploring Shostakovich's music, which you said in an interview that it doesn't have the same melodic power as other music by Russian composers. Why did you choose this second concert and how would you describe it in relation to the first?

First of all, it is true that Shostakovich did not write the kind of melodic lines that we associate with the music of Rahmaninov, Tchaikovsky or Rimsky-Korsakov, so those long lyrical melodies that are typical of the "Russian spirit". But Shostakovich had a unique gift for writing down melodies that immediately stick in your mind. A famous example would be Waltz No. 2, which has become a popular song. So this ability of his is not to be overlooked. The same can be said of the Concerto No. 2 for piano and orchestra; the first piano theme may at first hearing seem devoid of essence, but it really sticks in your memory. This work was composed for his son Maxim when he was graduating from the Conservatory and it has a lot of youthful energy, it is a serene, energetic Shostakovich, and at the same time, because it is Shostakovich, there are moments charged with an aggressive, almost frightening power, especially in the development section of the first part, where the serene beginning with an almost childlike melody later turns into a scream. And perhaps the most beautiful moment in this concerto is the second part, for here is a moment of sincerity rarely seen in Shostakovich.There is no doubt that he was not pretending here, he was not censoring his emotions, and if you consider that this is where you really discover his emotions, then you can see a sadness that is so pervasive, the kind of sadness that you feel to the core and that cannot leave you. There are a few moments of hope, but then everything fades into darkness.

So, if you want to discover the beauty of Shostakovich's melodies, you can find them here. So he had this side to him. For me, this second movement is one of the most beautiful pieces of music he ever wrote. And then comes the Finale, which dispels all the darkness and sets up the joy.

You asked about the relationship between the two Shostakovich concertos. They are very different. The first one is very well structured, in fact it is the most unusual and unexpected concerto in the entire piano concerto repertoire. And this is evident from Shostakovich's reaction to the question "how would he describe this concerto?". He said that the only way he could explain it would be to play it. So the message was clear: this concert is what it is and we should not try to analyze it too much. In this first concert we have a young Shostakovich, before the Communist Particulate assault on his music, a different Shostakovich from the Shostakovich of his mature period, but not a less inventive composer, but one who is very structured in his thinking. And if I were to refer to the second part of the work, I would say that he managed to mask his emotions very well, but in this movement he gave us so much of his heart and soul that it is hard not to fall in love with his music.

You have an impressive discography that includes, in addition to solo works, concertos for piano and orchestra. Over the years, different artists have expressed different opinions on this subject, so could you tell us what this process means to you and what you think its importance is?

My idea about the recordings is that they ideally represent the best version of the piece that I can do today, meaning that if I come back to this work tomorrow, I won't necessarily play it better, but it will certainly be something different. So it's not a kind of last word from me to that work because music is organic, and our vision of a piece changes as we change throughout our lives. Take the example of the Shostakovich Concerto that I'm playing this week here in Bucharest; I played it eight years ago, I was a different version of myself then, and of course I had a different approach; and the same concerto is the first concerto I ever played with an orchestra, when I was 13, when I was also a different me and I was relating to this work differently. So, I think in a recording I try to immortalize the best vision I have of that piece at that moment and not try to simulate the concert atmosphere because that's not my goal.

We are usually in an empty hall, without an audience and without the adrenaline of a concert. On the other hand, we can rework a piece of work several times, and, especially with solo pieces, this is a place where you can experiment, you can try approaches that you might find too risky, but you have the option to redo that segment if it is too risky.

Every time a recording session ends, I feel like I know the piece better, even if it's something I've been playing for years. During the recording process there's a kind of spotlight that shines on every corner and makes you want to leave no question unanswered. Because you really need to know why you choose to play a particular passage that way, from tempo, dynamics, articulation, and finally how it all relates to the context.

Personally, I love the process, I make recordings quite often, and many of the recording projects I've done - like the Beethoven sonatas I printed in 2020 - have helped me so much to go even further in my understanding of that music that I consider them life-changing experiences. So yes, I'm a fan of recordings.

You asked what I think is the importance of records. I think there are several answers to that question. If it's a more unusual repertoire, if it's a less approached repertoire, that's already a reason: to present this repertoire to the public, but of course many of the pieces that we are printing today have already been recorded in the past. And then, I think it's more about putting your heart and soul into that music. And then, when someone wants to listen to a certain music, that person can decide in whose company they want to spend those moments. All musical masterpieces have already been recorded by many, many musicians, and then I, as a listener, if I want to put on a record of Bach's "Well-Tempered Clavier", I can decide whether I want to spend a few hours with Edwin Fischer, András Schiff or Glenn Gould. In contemporary culture we're a bit obsessed with the best things: which is the best recording.... But I think it's really about the joy of discovering different visions of a work, even if in the end, as a listener, I decide that this is not the version I prefer, but even so, I've discovered a new approach to a piece I already knew.

Photo credit: Cătălina Filip