Andris Nelsons conducts Pärt, Kaija Saariaho, Shostakovich and Stravinsky featuring violinist Baiba Skride and Anu Komsi, soprano
Boston Symphony Orchestra
Symphony Hall, Boston, MA
BSO Music Director Andris Nelsons is joined by his compatriot, violinist Baiba Skride, for Shostakovich’s Violin Concerto No. 1, which was written in the late 1940s but only premiered in 1955, after Stalin’s death helped relax the constraints on artistic expression in the USSR. The concerto contains a version of the composer’s musical “signature,” suggesting that was a work of powerful personal importance. It was composed for and dedicated to David Oistrakh. Opening the program is the Estonian composer Arvo Pärt’s poignant homage to Shostakovich’s great friend, the English composer Benjamin Britten.
Finnish soprano Anu Komsi makes her BSO debut in the world premiere of Kaija Saariaho’s own orchestrations of her song cycle on poems of the great 20th century Finnish poet Pentti Saarikoski. Saariaho wrote the original piano and voice versions of these songs for Anu Komsi. The Suite from Stravinsky’s 1909 ballet score The Firebird closes the program. The composer’s astonishingly imaginative orchestration perfectly captured the magical atmosphere of this Russian legend, and the Ballets Russes premiere in Paris swept the composer to worldwide fame.
Program Notes & Works
Cantus in Memory of Benjamin Britten
Saarikoski Songs
BSO co-commission
Suite from The Firebird (1919 version)
The premiere of the lavishly colorful ballet marked a signal triumph for the Ballets Russes and put Stravinsky on the map.
Violin Concerto No. 1
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