Tchaikovsky 2 & Veronika Eberle plays Shostakovich

Conductor emeritus Hugh Wolff begins this concert with Ukrainian composer Valentin Silvestrov's Farewell Serenade,an ode to his friend, fellow composer and compatriot Ivan Karabits.

In 1948, while composing his uncompromising First Violin Concerto, Shostakovich was accused of formalism. From that moment on, he had no choice but to put his music at the service of the Communist ideal, at least outwardly. His violin concerto, a work without compromise and deeply introspective, remained shelved for a few years and was only premiered for the public two years after Stalin's death, in 1955. With its dimensions and form, the First Violin Concerto, a four-movement piece dedicated to the famous violinist David Oistrakh, resembles an ambitious symphony. In the final movement, dark and burlesque, dancing melodies bordering on madness and extreme virtuosity bring the concerto to a close on a note as unsettling as it is exciting.

Tchaikovsky composed most of his Second Symphony in 1872, during a summer holiday in Kamianka, in present-day Ukraine, while visiting the Davydovs, the family of his youngest sister. This family estate was for a time Tchaikovsky's favorite hideaway, and his comfort there is reflected in the numerous Ukrainian folk songs that permeate his Second Symphony. "The real credit for the finale goes to Peter Gerasimovich”, Tchaikovsky once joked, referring to the old butler of the Davydovs, who sang to him The Crane, the popular tune upon which this final movement is built. The premiere of the Second Symphony in Moscow was a huge success. Although this short symphonic piece based on folk melodies pleased the composers of the Mighty Handful, Tchaikovsky himself was not satisfied with it, and he thoroughly revised the score a few years later.