Ibragimova plays Brahms

Alina Ibragimova is among the most intriguing violinists to appear on the scene in recent years. A dedicated performer of works ranging from the Baroque to the contemporary, she has performed all of Beethoven and Mozart's violin sonatas in Wigmore Hall and was artist-in-residence at the 2015 Proms festival. Brahms' glorious Violin Concerto is one of the composer's most frequently performed works, with its almost other-worldly balance of the melodic and the majestic, the exalted and the earthy.

Seldom has any composer had so much at stake as Dmitri Shostakovich at the Leningrad premiere of his Symphony no. 5 in 1937, one of the most appalling years of Stalin's brutal regime. The music is fraught with dramatic tension, and the symphony is considered by many to be one of the most overpowering written in the 20^th century.

This concert is dedicated to the memory of Icelandic violinist Björn Ólafsson, born a century ago. Björn was the first concertmaster in the history of the ISO and performed the Brahms three times during his tenure with the orchestra.