Leicester: Santtu conducts Shostakovich & Prokofiev

Programme

Our Principal Conductor and Featured Artist join forces for an evening of 20th century classics.

Charismatic violinist Nemanja Radulović brings his ‘energy and firepower’ (Gramophone) to the De Montfort Hall stage in Shostakovich’s First Violin Concerto. Met with disapproval by the Soviet authorities, the piece did not receive its premiere until after Stalin’s death. The anguish Shostakovich must have felt at being repressed is felt in the painfully beautiful, yearning third movement, which leads straight into the wild finale.

Music from a student Shostakovich completes this evening’s programme. Shostakovich was just 19 years old when he wrote his graduation piece at the Petrograd Conservatory. But don’t be fooled by his young age: already, we hear the composer’s distinctive voice and style in one of his finest works.

First, we hear Prokofiev’s “happy and uncomplicated”, Mozart-inspired Symphony No. 1. Light-hearted and filled with dances, it’s the perfect way to open the programme.