April 2022
Repertoire
D. SHOSTAKOVICH: Violin Concerto No. 1, Op. 77
S. RACHMANINOV: Symphony No. 2, Op. 27
Performers
Patricia Kopatchinskaja, violin
Franz Schubert Filharmonia
Tomàs Grau, conductor
Programme notes
Although Shostakovitch is recognized as the great symphonist of the 20th century, his concerts for solo instruments are also indispensable works. He began to compose Violin Concerto No. 1 in 1947, but due to the criticism he suffered at the time from the Soviet regime, he preferred to keep the score in a drawer. Furtively, without saying anything to anyone, he completed it until the great David Oistrakh premiered it in 1955. The demand for the solo violin is devilish and the success of the work is also due to the burlesque quotes from great classical music and the brilliant final movement.
While Rachmaninov was composing Symphony No. 2, he wrote: “To hell with symphonies! I will never use this form again!” I don’t know how to write symphonies and I don’t feel like playing any either! ” Luckily, he ignored himself and he finished the work in 1908. Then years later, he even wrote another. The 2nd symphony took a lot of work, but once it was released it was an undeniable success. It is a great, energetic work, with many epic moments and with a tremendous ending. When asked to tour the United States, he did not hesitate to put Piano Concerto No. 2 in his bag: triumph in America was assured.
CONCERT DATES
Kopatchinskaja & Franz Schubert Filh
Biography Patricia Kopatchinskaja
Combining depth, brilliance and humour, Kopatchinskaja brings an inimitable theatrical sensitivity to her music. Whether performing a violin concerto by Tchaikovsky, Ligeti or Schoenberg or presenting an original staged project that deconstructs Beethoven, Ustwolskaja or Cage, her distinctive approach always conveys the core of the work.
Kopatchinskaja appears regularly with such artists as Polina Leschenko, with whom she recently toured in Japan and the United States, and Reto Bieri, with whom she premiered a new trio at Wigmore Hall (with Leschenko).
Highlights of the 2020-21 Season include the Frankfurt residency in Alter Oper, SWR Symphony Orchestra, Bamberg Symphony and Elbphilharmonie Hamburg. She will also be one of three new Southbank Centre Associate Artists from January 2021 through to the end of the 2021/22 season.
Kopatchinskaja continues to work closely with Camerata Bern and her recording Time and Eternity was released in the autumn of 2019. She served as an artistic partner of the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra from 2014 to 2018, and is also a humanitarian ambassador for Terre des Hommes, the principal Swiss childcare agency. She was awarded the Swiss Grand Prize for Music from the Federal Office of Culture for Switzerland in 2017 and has been an artist-in-residence at various festivals, including Lucerne (2017) and Ojai (2018). In 2018 she won a Grammy Award in the category Best Chamber Performance and Small Ensemble for Death and the Maiden with The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra ( Alpha) and was nominated in 2014 in the category of Best Classical Instrumental Solo (Naïve).