Beethoven and Shostakovich

Polish-Canadian pianist Jan Lisiecki has been at the forefront of the world's pianists for years and is well-known to Icelandic concertgoers. In recent years, he has performed Schumann's (2018) and Chopin's (2022) piano concertos with the Iceland Symphony Orchestra to great critical and public acclaim. In this concert, Lisiecki will be playing Beethoven's Fourth Piano Concerto, a monumental work that contains both incomparable, virtuosic piano writing and daring formal innovations, not to mention the sublime beauty and heartfelt expression that contributes to its lasting popularity among music enthusiasts worldwide.

Dmitri Shostakovich's Symphony No. 8 premiered in Moscow in 1943, in the middle of World War II. It is grand in scope and emotionally impactful, as the composer described it as a kind of "poem of suffering," an attempt to reflect the immense pain that the war had brought. Not always considered exemplary in his adherence to Soviet ideology, Shostakovich had a complex and tumultuous relationship with the authorities in Moscow. The Eighth Symphony is among the works that ended up on the government's blacklist, as the composer was deemed guilty of formal decadence.

Conductor Andris Poga is conducting the Iceland Symphony Orchestra for the first time. In addition to guest conducting with many of the world's leading orchestras, Poga serves as the chief conductor of the Stavanger Symphony Orchestra and was previously the principal conductor of the Latvian National Symphony Orchestra.