Leipzig, Germany - Gewandhaus Orchester; Karen Gomyo, violin - Shostakovich, R. Strauss

Programme
Dmitri Shostakovich: Concerto No. 1 for Violin and Orchestra in A minor op. 77 (rev. op. 99)
Richard Strauss: An Alpine Symphony op. 64

Performing with
Karen Gomyo violin
Gewandhaus Orchester

CONCERTANTE CLIMBING
Between the 9th and 10th symphonies there is a curious gap in the orchestral oeuvre of the fast writer Dmitri Shostakovich. While he usually let one symphony follow the other, he fell silent for eight years after the subversively undermining expectations Ninth in this field. Once again, he was caught in the crossfire of criticism and lost the teaching posts that were so important for his livelihood. However, a great orchestral work was written during this dark time: the 1st Violin Concerto. From July 1947 to March 1948, Shostakovich worked on it. Then it disappeared into the drawer.

ONLY THE ABYSS YAWNS
When Shostakovich prepared the score for performance and printing after Stalin’s death in the mid-1950s, he assigned a new opus number. Did he want to avoid associating the music with the time of its creation? The sinister tones make no secret of it. The first movement is a night piece. Broodingly, deep strings, bassoon, contrabassoon and the moonlit bass clarinet revolve around a thought. Against this dark background of sound, the solo violin stands out brightly; like twinkling stars, celesta tones light up. The fast-paced scherzo in second place was described by the premiere violinist and dedicatee David Oistrakh as a demonic dance of despair. As Passacaglia, the Bach admirer Shostakovich designed the 3rd movement. The soloist hardly has a break in this concert. It does not play a voice, but a role. She celebrates her loneliness in the endlessly long cadence.

SYMPHONIC HIGH MOUNTAINS
In the fog of the night, the Alpine Symphony by the enthusiastic mountaineer and Nietzsche reader Richard Strauss also begins and ends. Between symbolic ascent and turbulent descent in a thunderstorm, the music brings sublime summit moments of overwhelming radiance.