Tchaikovsky and Shostakovich

Japanese violin virtuoso Sayaka Shoji is a familiar face in Iceland, as she has appeared twice at the Midsummer Music Festival held at Harpa. In 1999 she became the youngest person ever to win the Paganini Competition, paving the way for a brilliant career. Today she travels all over the world with her Stradivarius, mesmerising audiences wherever she goes. At this ISO concert, she performs Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto, one of the best-loved violin pieces of all time, written by Tchaikovsky in 1878 for his lover, Josef Kutek. Passionate phrases intertwined with melodies reminiscent of Russian folk music make this concerto an unforgettable experience.

Conducting the programme is Finland’s Klaus Mäkelä, who has shown himself to be one of the Nordic region’s most noteworthy conductors despite his youth. Leonard Bernstein’s scintillating overture to the operetta Candide is a fitting opening for the concert, as 2018 is the centenary of Bernstein’s birth. Shostakovich’s Symphony no. 10 is one of the composer’s best-loved pieces, featuring a blend of dramatic vehemence and candid lyricism. It was the first piece Shostakovich wrote after the death of Stalin in 1953, and many listeners hear in it a settling of accounts with that fateful regime. Shostakovich is reported to have said that the second movement was a “musical portrait of Stalin”, but whatever the case may be, the music is particularly moving.

The concert will be streamed live here on Iceland Symphony's website, en.sinfonia.is.