Osmo Conducts Shostakovich

Sergei Prokofiev wrote a number of fine film scores, beginning with the music to the 1933 film Lieutenant Kijé. The story is a hilarious satire of imperial bureaucracy: when some employees at the court of the Russian czar discover that the military duty roster contains the name of an officer who does not exist, they proceed to blame the fictitious officer for everything that goes wrong. The suite from the film is highly accessible and is one of the most frequently performed of Prokofiev's compositions. Shostakovich wrote his Symphony no. 6 around the time that World War II broke out. It is a work of stark contradictions, alternating sections of deep melancholy and unbridled jollity.

Einar Jóhannesson was principal clarinettist with the Iceland Symphony for decades, and he and his artistry are well known to concert guests. Áskell Másson wrote his new clarinet concerto expressly for Einar.

Iceland Symphony Orchestra Principal Guest Conductor Osmo Vänskä is at the height of his career and is respected worldwide. Last autumn he conducted the London Philharmonic's performances of all of Sibelius' symphonies and received outstanding reviews: “an urgency and spontaneity that send shivers down one's back,” said the music critic of the Financial Times.