W&L Presents Faculty Recital The public recital, “Musical Innovators: Prokofiev and Shostakovich,” is scheduled for Sept. 12 at 3 p.m. in the Wilson Concert Hall.

By Erica Turman
September 8, 2021

Washington and Lee University will present a faculty recital on Sept. 12 at 3 p.m. in the Wilson Concert Hall.

The performance, “Musical Innovators: Prokofiev and Shostakovich,” is free and open to the public. All audience members are required to wear a mask.

The recital will feature W&L’s Anna Billias on piano and baritone Gregory Parker. The duo will highlight works by composers Sergei Prokofiev and Dmitri Shostakovich.

Prokofiev was one of many composers looking to shed the trappings of Romanticism and open new vistas in musical expression. Shostakovich, 15 years his junior, likewise combined an eclectic array of compositional techniques in his works.

In this recital, Billias and Parker will present works created by these composers in the years surrounding 1936, when the Soviet regime issued one of many mandates regarding “appropriate” artistic expression.

Selections will incorporate Prokofiev’s “Three Romances after Pushkin” and his fifth piano sonata, which features surprisingly light colors and clarity not typical of his overall tone. Shostakovich will be represented by his “Three Fantastic Dances” for piano with its grotesque and exquisite harmonies as well as a selection of preludes from his “Opus 34.”