Composer

In a tour of recent Nordic music, this concert offers several examples of composers who were inspired by elements from early modernism and neoclassicism and who at the same time held fast to their Nordic origins.

Both the Swedish Rosenberg and the Norwegian Sæverud and our own Carl Nielsen introduced modernist musical ideas into national romantic-based musical cultures. With Sæverud this is already visible in the titles, which refer to Norwegian folk music, and with Carl Nielsen this is heard through his creation of his own musical language, where he mixes Danish folk tunes and impressionism, of which his work “Pan and Syrinx” is a typical example. 

The Magnificent North

Southern Denmark Conservatory of Music

Hamburg's former General Music Director Simone Young has always championed the works of Austrian composer Franz Schmidt. She traces her fondness for his music back to her years in Vienna, where Schmidt is a staple of the repertoire. In the north, however, Young was the first in a long time to revive Schmidt's monumental oratorio "The Book with Seven Seals." For her guest conducting engagement with the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra, she now brings Schmidt's rarely heard Second Symphony in E-flat major to the table.

EPSG:4326

NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra / Gautier Capuçon / Simone Young

Elbphilharmonie Hamburg

Thursday Concert No. 4

Volkshaus Jena

Under the baton of Euan Shields, Director of the Hallé Youth Orchestra and winner of the 2023 Siemens Hallé International Conductors Competition, the younger generation of our Hallé family open this concert with Awakening. A musical tapestry, it weaves together the rich and historical sound world of Wales and the vibrant energy of New York City; the two places Katie Jenkins has called home. Commissioned by the Juilliard School for the Juilliard Orchestra’s opening concert of 2024/25, this piece serves as a celebration of the excitement and anticipation of new beginnings. Shostakovich’s Fifth Symphony is one of his most famous, and one of the greatest and most powerful of twentieth-century orchestral works. It was, supposedly, ‘A Soviet artist’s response to just criticism’. It is now known that this popular symphony was composed as a work of defiance so subtle that no-one realised at the time.

Hallé Youth Orchestra – Shostakovich Symphony No.5

The Bridgewater Hall

Under the baton of Euan Shields, Director of the Hallé Youth Orchestra and winner of the 2023 Siemens Hallé International Conductors Competition, the younger generation of our Hallé family open this concert with Awakening. A musical tapestry, it weaves together the rich and historical sound world of Wales and the vibrant energy of New York City; the two places Katie Jenkins has called home. Commissioned by the Juilliard School for the Juilliard Orchestra’s opening concert of 2024/25, this piece serves as a celebration of the excitement and anticipation of new beginnings.

Hallé Youth Orchestra

Ready to experience TSO in a new way? Music director José Luis Gomez uncovers the fascinating story behind Dmitri Shostakovich’s most popular symphony, the Fifth, in this new 75-minute format. Do the themes of personal struggle, resilience, and the power of the human spirit remain as relevant today as they did in 1937? Excerpts and commentary will be followed by a complete performance of this symphonic masterpiece.

Underscore: Shostakovich’s Fifth

Linda Ronstadt Music Hall

BNY Classics showcases unforgettable performances by your Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, featuring timeless masterpieces, thrilling premieres, and renowned guest artists.

Shostakovich's Fifth

Heinz Hall for the Performing Arts

Alessio Bax makes his TSO debut as the soloist in Beethoven’s monumental Piano Concerto No. 5, “Emperor”. Shostakovich’s Fifth Symphony and Carlos Simon’s Fate Now Conquers complete this program built on themes of unrest and power.

Beethoven’s Emperor

Richard Strauss casts himself as the protagonist in A Hero’s Life, an epic autobiographical tone poem from 1898. Bold and notoriously difficult, the work depicts the hero’s battles, critics, love story, and victories—yet, rather than ending in a blaze of glory, Strauss closes his saga with a serene and reflective retreat as his hero steps away from the world, content with his legacy.

Markus Poschner conducts Strauss' A Hero's Life

Salt Palace Convention Center

Clara Schumann’s Three Romances are wistful and intimate, gracefully opening this concert led by frequent SLSO guest conductor John Storgårds. Haydn’s Cello Concerto, though exceptionally difficult to master, is leisurely and elegant. Cellist Kian Soltani, whose emotional connection with audiences has captivated many, makes his St. Louis debut. Then, a musical kaleidoscope takes shape in Shostakovich’s final symphony, a blend of the composer’s memories, transformed into an epic symphonic memoir.

Shostakovich's 15th

Powell Hall

They’re the most famous four notes in history. “This is how Fate knocks at the door!” is how Beethoven described the opening of his Fifth Symphony, but if that’s all you know of this game-changing masterpiece, you’re in for a wonderful discovery, as conductor András Keller and the Concerto Budapest Symphony Orchestra unleash the full, electrifying power of Beethoven at the absolute top of his game.

Concerto Budapest Symphony Orchestra

Cadogan Hall 

The earth is sweating, the poles are melting—and somewhere, a penguin is sitting on packed suitcases. Thousands of animals from all over the world are competing for a ticket on the luxury liner "Arche Boa." Twelve animal finalists will present their stories in a spectacular show. The audience decides: Which animal will be saved, will receive the last QuarTIER on board, and thus be saved from extinction?

1.  Children's concert Arche Boa

Theater Lübeck

Experience unforgettable performances by your Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, featuring timeless masterpieces, thrilling premieres, and renowned guest artists.

Carnegie Hall Preview

Once upon a time… Love Story. Love… a passionate and oh-so-human impulse. The common thread of our destinies. The one for which we live and die, the true driving force of all existence. For centuries, no subject has so inflamed minds as love. The Ensemble Émeraude, formed within the OPRL, explores its various aspects through works by German, Czech, Hungarian, Polish, and Russian composers. The concert is passionately presented by Stéphane Dado, art and music historian and OPRL Project Manager.

Love Story

Philharmonic Hall of Liege

Czech Chamber Music Society • Alinde Quintet

Rudolfinum

This program presents the season's motto "Planet Shostakovich" for the first time in chamber music. It focuses on Dmitri Shostakovich and Sergei Prokofiev – two internationally acclaimed Russian composers who created masterful works in the tension between artistic independence and political pressure. Their relationship was characterized by rivalry as well as mutual inspiration. The selected works explore different creative phases and contexts: A "Moderato" by Shostakovich for cello and piano from the 1930s, rediscovered in 1986, is followed by "Five Pieces" based on stage and film scores – a suite in miniature format for violin, cello, and piano, arranged by Levon Atovmyan. Prokofiev is represented by his Violin Sonata in F minor, a piece of intimate form but with an epic content of symphonic grandeur, as well as selected scenes from his admired ballet music "Romeo and Juliet," arranged for viola and piano by Vadim Borisovsky, who, as a brilliant interpreter and arranger, popularized the music of both composers. /JN

Culinary Sunday Matinee № 3 

Hotel & Restaurant Schwarzer Bär

Kronberg Academy

Cologne Philharmonie

Fresh off her Carnegie Hall debut, pianist Zlata Chochieva presents Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s dark and stormy Piano Concerto No. 20. Conductor Joshua Weilerstein leads Dmitri Shostakovich’s powerful Eleventh Symphony, a profound reflection on the Russian Revolution of 1905. Canadian composer Samy Moussa’s Adgilis Deda evokes a sense of maternal protection.

Mozart & Shostakovich 11

Orpheum

If there is one 20th-century composer on whom everyone can agree, then Sergei Rachmaninoff has a great chance. He inspires perhaps more people today than ever before, especially his two middle piano concertos, which are high on classical music streaming lists.
Russian-Armenian pianist Eva Gevorgyan, born in 2004, will breathe new life into the romantic sounds of the second. Chief conductor Nicholas Milton will preface the concert with a contemporary work by Mexican composer Gabriela Ortiz – and place the symphony by another important Russian composer at the end. With "The Emergence of Personality," the subtitle of his Fifth, Dmitri Shostakovich achieved his temporary rehabilitation under Stalin in the 1930s.

Resistance

Stadthalle Göttingen

“More for a Caruso than a Paganini,” Korngold said, is how he wrote his Violin Concerto. This means: a bold embrace of lyrical richness. Renaud Capuçon, with his rich, velvety violin tone, is the ideal interpreter, and Shostakovich’s 11th Symphony provides a stark counterpoint. This symphony is like a history lesson. Its title, “The Year 1905,” refers to Bloody Sunday in St. Petersburg and the massacre of demonstrating workers in front of the Tsar’s palace. The tension, the confrontation between the people and the authorities, the grief for the dead are vividly audible here. Revolutionary songs, workers’ anthems, protest songs—this is the material from which Shostakovich crafts a powerfully evocative symphony—one that resonates just as strongly with its year of composition, 1957, with the Hungarian Uprising that had just been brutally suppressed, as it does with our own time. With this performance, Alain Altinoglu and the hr Symphony Orchestra continue their recording of all Shostakovich symphonies this season. Also physically demanding, energetic, and featuring a powerful percussion section, is "Alaraph," a work by Focus artist Unsuk Chin, being heard for the first time in Germany. The title comes from one of the so-called "heartbeat stars," whose pulsation resembles the heart rate in an electrocardiogram.

Shostakovich 11

Alte Oper

Chief conductor Klaus Mäkelä conducts the work Dmitri Shostakovich described as his requiem: Symphony No. 8, written during the Second World War and under Stalin’s reign of terror.

Klaus Mäkelä

Oslo Concert Hall

There is pathos and passion from the first bar of Brahms's first piano concerto. A powerful timpani roll sets off a great symphonic drama, and during the concert both soloist and orchestra face great trials. But at the same time they share the same desire to perform the dazzlingly beautiful music.

Elim Chan & Shostakovich

DR Koncerthuset

A fascinating journey through 20th-century music awaits us for this concert, which begins with the disturbing Tombeau de Nelligan by Quebec composer Jacques Hétu. Commissioned a little over 30 years ago by the Orchestre symphonique de Québec, the piece pays tribute to the poet Émile Nelligan, who profoundly influenced Quebec literature.

Rachmaninov's Second Concerto

Grand Théâtre de Québec

The beloved Danish String Quartet returns to the Twin Cities, following their hugely successful performance of the Beethoven String Quartet Cycle in 2021. As The New York Times put it: “The Danish play as if they have abandoned their individual personalities entirely to serve the collective—as if they were joined on a single instrument, armed with four bows.”

Danish String Quartet

Saint Anthony Park United Church of Christ

This Welsh pianist may not be a household name in America, but his semi-annual performances on the series are highly-anticipated by pianophiles and music lovers alike. Williams brings his virtuosic technique and soulful phrasing in a wide-ranging program.

Llŷr Williams, piano Union College

Union College

This season, the hr-Symphony Orchestra, together with Norwegian conductor Tabita Berglund and renowned German cellist Julian Steckel, presents a program rich in myth and utterly captivating in Fulda. Myths fascinate people because they transcend us. This is true of the music Richard Wagner created for Tristan and Isolde, as well as the music with which Icelandic composer Anna Thorvaldsdottir captures the idea of ​​a "primal energy" in sound. Jean Sibelius, the great symphonist of the North, proved with his Seventh Symphony that one can express the ultimate in just 20 minutes. His last symphony is like an essence, pure and intense. Dmitri Shostakovich contributes his Cello Concerto No. 1, a work full of masks, facades, and ambiguities—both whimsical and serious.

Concerts at Fulda Castle Theatre

Fulda City Palace Theatre

Immerse yourself in an enchanting evening of music, featuring a stirring new guitar concerto by composer Karen LeFrak, Miami Concerto, performed by the incomparable Sharon Isbin (Christel DeHaan Legacy Artist). The piece demonstrates a captivating journey with vibrant Latin rhythms and lush melodies showcasing the guitar’s full range of beauty and power.

Miami in Motion Sharon Isbin, Guitar

Butler University

Myths fascinate people because they transcend us. This is also true of the music Wagner created for "Tristan und Isolde," which sounds incredibly grand. Equally impressive is the music with which Anna Thorvaldsdottir captures the idea of ​​a "primal energy" in sound. These are sounds of singular tension and power. But one myth needs to be dispelled: that symphonies must be long to be significant. Sibelius, the great symphonist of the North, proved with his "Seventh" that the ultimate can be expressed in barely 20 minutes. His last symphony is like an essence, pure and intense, getting straight to the point without any embellishment. For all its significance, grandeur, and depth, this program also offers Shostakovich's Cello Concerto No. 1: a work full of masks, facades, and ambiguities, whimsical yet also serious. The contrasts could hardly be sharper between broad Moderato and frantic Allegretto, between light and dark, machine-like music and grace. Alongside this, one hears and sees a soloist who is almost comically busy – Julian Steckel takes on this hyperactive role, a cellist who says of himself: "I can play Shostakovich at 3 a.m." On the podium of the hr Symphony Orchestra is the Norwegian Tabita Berglund, also a trained cellist, who for some years now has concentrated on conducting – particularly on music from the Nordic regions, on these special powerhouses that transcend the ordinary.

Archora

Hessischer Rundfunk

For 60 years, the Musicians from Marlboro touring program has brought memorable performances from Vermont’s legendary chamber music school and festival to national audiences. The first of three Marlboro touring ensembles this season is led by Lysander Trio violinist Itamar Zorman. Their program features Britten’s Phantasy for string trio and oboe, his first work to gain major international recognition, as well as Shostakovich’s introspective, sardonic, and elegiac String Quartet No. 8, a work dedicated to the victims of war and fascism. The program concludes with the youthful brilliance of the 16-year-old Felix Mendelssohn’s String Quintet in A Major.

Musicians from Marlboro I

 Benjamin Franklin Hall

Dmitri Shostakovich's son Maxim described the 15th and final symphony of his father, who died 50 years ago and to whom the music world will dedicate a commemorative year in 2025, as an autobiography from birth to death . Announced as a joyful symphony, Shostakovich composed a complex composition a few years before his death: serious, but also ironic, which, as it were, reflects on his eventful life. He uses quotations from himself and from some of his colleagues, including Gioachino Rossini, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, and Gustav Mahler.

3rd Philharmonic Concert / Far Away

Volkstheater Rostock

The always-evolving Met Orchestra Chamber Ensemble features musicians from the legendary Met Orchestra in a variety of unique programs. Together, along with special guest artists from the Metropolitan Opera and beyond, they explore a boundless world of chamber music, adapting to fit the instrumental needs of any piece—from all-time classics to hard-to-find hidden gems and standout works by many of today’s significant composers. In this Sunday matinee, they perform one of J. S. Bach’s legendary Brandenburg concertos, plus inventive arrangements of Richard Strauss’s Till Eulenspiegel’s Merry Pranks and Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 15.

The Met Orchestra Chamber Ensemble 2025 Concert 2

Carnegie Hall

Two of the world’s most celebrated musicians, Alisa Weilerstein and Inon Barnatan, join forces for a breathtaking recital. This dynamic duo brings an unparalleled level of passion, technique and artistry to the stage.

Alisa Weilerstein, cello & Inon Barnatan, piano

Clayton State University

Acclaimed conductor and Berkeley Symphony’s own Ming Luke conducts the 25/26 season’s third performance, Worlds Beyond. This program explores the artist’s voice at moments of transition and liminality.

Worlds Beyond

First Congregational Church of Berkeley

What's actually better: being born or not being born? You can't choose the time and place of your birth. Yet these are precisely the essential coordinates for the starting point from which...

FUEL

Mannheimer Rosengarten

Rakhmaninov Schostakowitsch Borodin

Gasteig HP8

Prepare for an emotional rollercoaster, from the intricate artistry of Bach's Ricercare No. 2 and the radiant brilliance of his Brandenburg Concerto No. 2 to the raw, visceral intensity of Shostakovich's Chamber Symphony and the vibrant, theatrical energy of his Ballet Suite No. 1.

Northshore Classics: Bach & Shostakovich

Greater Covington Center

The SFCM Orchestra presents Aqua, composed by Canadian Vivian Fung and inspired by one of Chicago’s most eye-catching skyscrapers, the Aqua Tower. This concert also features Tchaikovsky’s popular Piano Concerto No. 1 and concludes with Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 11, a vivid and descriptive work often described as a film score without a film. This concert features guest conductor Earl Lee, SFCM Conducting Student Jason Gluck as well as SFCM Piano Concerto Competition winner Oliver Moore. 

SFCM Orchestra with Earl Lee Concert Orchestra

San Francisco Conservatory of Music

This season, we continue our odyssey through Shostakovich’s symphonies with Chief Conductor John Storgårds, who masterfully captures both the tenderness and ferocity of the composer’s music. Tonight’s programme features Symphony No. 10, premiered after Stalin’s death in 1953. Filled with grief, rage, and manic intensity, it feels deeply autobiographical – a feeling reinforced by the composer’s musical signature, the notes D, S, C, and H, that are furiously seared into the final movements of the work.

BBC Philharmonic - Storgårds conducts Shostakovich

Beyond Boundaries: Beethoven Reimagined

Julie Rogers Theatre

Storgårds conducts Shostakovich

Creations of Fire

Broome County Forum Theatre

Rarely has the mutual respect between Haydn and Mozart been so clear than in Haydn's 95 and Mozart's last symphony. Both start out serious and in a minor key before working their way toward radiant finales. Composed three years apart, these pieces are milestones in Viennese Classical and modern music of the late 18th century.

Mozart – Haydn - Shosta­ko­vich

Meistersingerhalle

1st Youth Concert

Bach & Shostakovich

New Marigny Theatre

Manchester Chamber Concerts Society’s concert season returns to the Stoller Hall with six world-class chamber recitals between September 2025 and March 2026. Book a full season ticket to get 15% off your full-price ticket and the same seat each time.

Carducci Quartet

The Stoller Hall

1. Chamber Concert: In memory of the victims of fascism and war

Allerheiligen-Hofkirche

Unexpected Allies

Worthing Assembly Hall

DYNAMIKfest presents Trio Clara – a young ensemble born from a deep friendship between three exceptional musicians of the new generation. Italian pianist Martina Consonni, French violinist Sarah Jégou-Sageman, and German cellist Anouchka Hack are all successful soloists and experienced chamber musicians with numerous prestigious competition wins. Their performances are characterized by intuitive musical communication and a shared passion for sonic discovery, making Trio Clara one of the most exciting young ensembles on the international music scene. Since its founding at the renowned Kronberg Academy, the trio has performed in many major concert halls and festivals across Europe – experience their Salzburg debut now!

FIRST LOVES: TRIO CLARA DYNAMIKfest 2025

Mozarteum Foundation

Maestro Peter Rubardt conducts Haydn’s Symphony No. 102 along with Ralph Vaughan Williams’ string showcase Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis, and Dmitri Shostakovich’s First Piano Concerto.

Classically Connected

Saenger Theatre Pensacola

Beethoven’s spirited Leonore Overture No. 1 sets the stage for Arthur Bliss’s emotionally rich and rarely performed Cello Concerto, a powerful showcase for Wallfisch’s artistry.

Beethoven, Bliss & Shostakovich at Snape Maltings

Snape Maltings

Andrew Litton, Music Director of the New York City Ballet, conducts the must-hear Shostakovich Violin Concerto No. 1, a work that is brimming with technical precision and virtuosic themes captivatingly interpreted by Minsk-born Yevgeny Kutik. Beethoven’s stormy Coriolan Overture opens the concert and sets the mood of dramatic music-making. Tchaikovsky’s Orchestral Suite No. 3 anchors the evening with luxurious and inviting symphonic textures that completely satisfy a classical music lovers’ concert desires.

Litton Conducts Tchaikovsky

Phoenix Convention Center

Conductor Case Scaglione leads a program of celebration and inspiration. Copland’s famous Appalachian Spring Suite evokes the simplicity and grandeur of American pioneer life, while Lincoln Portrait sets Abraham Lincoln’s stirring words to music, honoring liberty and unity—perfect for America’s 250th anniversary. Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 5, born from oppression, emerges as a powerful statement of endurance and triumph.

Appalachian Spring

Jacoby Symphony Hall

Music Director Nathalie Stutzmann welcomes Swiss pianist Francesco Piemontesi who brings "a probing yet playful touch" (Chicago Classical Review) to a Beethoven concerto packed with brilliance, geniality, and wit. On the flip side, Nathalie Stutzmann summons the feverish virtuosity of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra for Shostakovich's biting protest against tyranny – the heartrending Symphony No. 8.

Stutzmann Conducts Beethoven + Shostakovich

The Woodruff Arts Center

Composed in 1943, Shostakovich's Eighth is the most tragic of his three war symphonies. Its sarcasm, despair, and violent outbursts, which maintain tension until the very end, nevertheless give way to a denouement full of hope and renewal. Violinist Lorenzo Gatto has charted a remarkable career since winning Second Prize at the 2009 Queen Elisabeth Competition. For his return to Liège, he will perform Prokofiev's moving First Concerto  (1923), a work of striking intensity, brilliantly combining profound lyricism with passages steeped in sarcasm.

Shostakovich 8

Grand Manège

Feel the brooding intensity of Shostakovich's Hamlet: Selections from the Film Suite, the timeless passion and tragedy of Tchaikovsky's Romeo and Juliet and experience a powerful portrait of Shostakovich's struggles and triumph with his monumental Symphony No. 10.

Shostakovich Symphony No. 10

Orpheum Theater

Tonight, the Nieuwe Kerk will be filled with grand sounds - yet still maintain an intimate atmosphere. The audience will be seated around the ensemble, making the experience even more special. Enjoy some of the finest chamber music, performed by a select group of string players from our own orchestra. They'll perform two compositions by two famous composers: Brahms and Shostakovich.

Shostakovich & Brahms

Nieuwe Kerk, The Hague

Pulitzer Prize and three-time GRAMMY awardee, Jennifer Higdon’s “Cathedrals” from All Things Majestic captures the grandeur of vast, awe-inspiring spaces. Inspired by Wyoming’s towering Teton Mountains, this piece contrasts shimmering light and deep shadows, drawing listeners into a sonic cathedral carved by nature itself.

Shostakovich's Final Symphony & Saint-Saëns' Cello Concerto No. 1 with Higdon & Massenet

The Parker

Amid the heroism and drama lies the hushed, almost religious contemplation of the third movement, the tender heart of the symphony that moved the audience to tears at its 1937 premiere.

Santtu Conducts Sibelius, Lindberg & Shostakovich

Southbank Centre

The soundscapes of the Hamburg Philharmonic State Orchestra's chamber concerts are as diverse as the characters of the musicians who perform in them. The demands in the orchestra pit are often characterized by the size and diversity of the voices. Chamber music, on the other hand, reduces this dimension to smaller ensembles and allows for intimate musical interaction.

2nd Chamber Concert

Elbphilharmonie

Young artists from Caramoor’s Evnin Rising Stars mentoring program perform in a pair of afternoon concerts for which the program’s Artistic Director, cellist Marcy Rosen, is joined by distinguished artists Ani Kavafian, violin, and Becca Albers, viola. These concerts are the capstone of a weeklong residency at Caramoor in which these young musicians participate in workshops, reading sessions, and ensemble rehearsals, culminating in live performances with their mentors. Since 1992, this program has identified some of the finest musicians of the next generation and helped them cross the threshold from their student years into the early stages of a professional career. 

Evnin Rising Stars

The Rosen House at Caramoor

"Dawn over the Moskva" is also the name given to the orchestral prelude to Modest Mussorgsky's opera Khovanshchina . Will it be another gloomy day, or will the skies clear up over the world? Music Director Vladimir Jurowski begins the new concert season of the Music Academy with enchantingly beautiful music from times of turmoil – music full of longing and desire, evoking memories of better days and hope for happier ones. Yves Savary, principal cellist of the Bavarian State Orchestra, performs Dmitri Shostakovich's Second Cello Concerto, which, according to his biography Krzysztof Meyer, is "perhaps the best of all his instrumental concertos," in which one finds "all the characteristics of Shostakovich's symphonic style": "the broad vocal quality, the expansive formal scope, the vitality and movement, as well as the humor and grotesque." Hans Zender, the subtle yet far-sighted composer, virtually invented a new genre in his late work: the "composed interpretation." Using his own compositional means, he quotes, overwrites, counterpoints, and transcends Robert Schumann's Fantasy for Piano Solo, supplemented by a Prelude and two Interludes, into a genuine orchestral work through which Schumann's original—here labeled "Ruins," "Triumphal Arch," and "Starry Night"—repeatedly shines through and blossoms: a magical sonic experience that transcends time and time again.

1st Academy Concert: Vladimir Jurowski

Max-Joseph-Platz

In her 1971 Märchen – Poem, Sofia Gubaidulina uses music of transcendent beauty to conjure a stick of chalk that dreams of life outside the classroom drawing beautiful landscapes.

London Symphony Orchestra/Ryan Bancroft

Barbican Centre

Violins whisper like the wind on a stormy night, the brass section pierces through the orchestra like flashes of lightning, and cellos and basses tremble, spreading unease… In just a few bars, certain pieces conjure an atmosphere perfectly suited to a time of year when terror and death are embraced rather than feared. Under the baton of Naomi Woo, Liszt’s diabolical Mephisto Waltz, Mussorgsky’s haunting Night on Bald Mountain, Verdi’s enchanting Witches’ Dance from Macbeth and Augusta Holmès’s epic Andromeda bring timeless stories and legends to life.

Symphonic Spells

Mercier Public Library

Paroisse Notre Dame de l'Annonciation

Place des Arts

Paroisse St-Joachim de Pointe-Claire

Classical music and film art: Since the creation of moving pictures, they have repeatedly entered into a productive symbiosis. The music of the late Romantic period, in particular, shaped the soundscape of Hollywood—partly because many of its great representatives fled Nazi Germany to the American West Coast. Hardly any living film composer stands as closely in this tradition as John Williams, who, in his music for "Star Wars," influenced by Korngold and Stravinsky, brought the Wagnerian concept of leitmotifs to unprecedented popularity—and in doing so, sometimes veers dangerously close to Picasso's maxim that "great artists steal."

2nd  Symphony Concert

Music and Congress Hall Lübeck

Klassiker der Filmmusik von Wagner bis »Star Wars«

Klassische Musik und Filmkunst: Seit der Entstehung der laufenden Bilder sind sie immer wieder eine produktive Symbiose eingegangen. Gerade die Musik der Spätromantik prägte die Klangwelt Hollywoods – auch da viele ihrer großen Vertreter vor dem Nationalsozialismus an die amerikanische Westküste geflohen waren. Kaum ein noch lebender Filmkomponist steht so in dieser Tradition wie John Williams, der in seiner durch Korngold und Strawinsky geprägten Musik zu »Star Wars« das wagnerianische Konzept der Leitmotive zu ungeahnter Popularität brachte – und sich dabei mitunter gefährlich nahe an Picassos Motto orientiert, dass »große Künstler stehlen«.

Die »James Bond«-Filme lassen die Unterhaltungsmusik ihrer jeweiligen Entstehungszeit anklingen, während Tōru Takemitsu in seinen »Three Film Scores« die typische Wiener Melange aus Walzerseligkeit und Schwermut aufgreift. Immer wieder fand und findet aber auch klassische Musik ihren Weg in den Film – sei es Schostakowitschs berühmter Walzer Nr. 2 in Stanley Kubricks »Eyes Wide Shut« oder wenn in Francis Ford Coppolas »Apocalypse Now« ein vietnamesisches Dorf zu den Klängen von Wagners »Walkürenritt« bombardiert wird. Das 2. Sinfoniekonzert spürt dieser gegenseitigen Inspiration von Film und Klassik in all ihren Facetten nach.

2. Sinfonie­konzert

Music and Congress Hall

The renowned Jerusalem Quartet opens our season with a masterful program spanning three centuries of string quartet repertoire. The concert features Haydn’s Quartet in B-flat Major, Op. 76, No. 4, Shostakovich’s deeply expressive Quartet No. 7 in F-Sharp Minor, Op. 108, and Beethoven’s monumental Quartet in B-flat Major, Op. 130, culminating in the powerful Grosse Fuge, Op. 133.

Jerusalem Quartet

University of Louisville

A landmark night for the SSO as we’re joined by Maestro Karl Hirzer and superstar percussion Dame Evelyn Glennie.

The Space Between

TCU Place

German conductor David Afkham makes his San Francisco Symphony debut with two timeless treasures of the Russian repertoire. Tchaikovsky’s only Violin Concerto wasn’t an immediate hit, but the composer was vindicated in time. Played here by Sergey Khachatryan, the concerto sells itself: a showpiece with a heart. Its hyper-hummable themes have escaped the confines of the concert hall and embedded themselves in the wider culture. Urgent and revelatory, Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 8 is the ideal soundtrack for an anxious age. Battling ill health, he composed it in just two months while on a state-sponsored sabbatical, far from the noise and chaos of wartime. Soviet authorities found it confusing and counter-revolutionary; today the Eighth resonates more powerfully than ever.

Afkham Conducts Tchaikovsky & Shostakovich

Davies Symphony Hall

Written during a time of political and personal turmoil, Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 4 unfolds with boldness and intensity. Never performed by the CSO, the massive symphony reflects Shostakovich’s defiance and anguish, marked by shifts from lush orchestration to aggressive dissonance. In contrast, Stella Chen, Gramophone 2023 Young Artist of the Year, joins the CSO for one of the most beautiful violin concertos of all time, wherein Barber’s signature lyricism tugs on heartstrings through his haunting, melancholic melodies.

Barber & Shostakovich

Cincinnati Music Hall

Dueling Ninths

Alys Robinson Stephens Performing Arts Center

London’s Philharmonia Orchestra returns to Hill Auditorium, with both the exciting young Finnish conductor Santtu-Matias Rouvali and Icelandic pianist Víkingur Ólafsson making their UMS debuts.

Philharmonia Orchestra, London with Víkingur Ólafsson, piano

University of Michigan

It’s a bitter irony, but bad politics sometimes produce great art. Shostakovich wrote his Eighth Symphony at the height of the Second World War, and every bar of this colossal work resounds with violent struggle. Schnittke’s Viola Concerto was born in the dying days of the Soviet Union: a voice of sorrow, mischief and subversion beneath the grey skies of the Cold War.

Composer

Dmitri Shostakovich

Events

Upcoming events

Mar 19, 2025 - Feb 25, 2026

360° No. 3 · Jenaer Philharmonie

Jun 27, 2025 - Apr 11, 2026

Klangzeit · Elbphilharmonie

Sep 21, 2025 - May 10, 2026

Chamber Concert / Hamburg Philharmonic State Orchestra · Elbphilharmonie

2 - 21 Dec, 2025

1. Children's concert Arche Boa · Theater Lübeck

30 - 31 Dec, 2025

New Year's Gala 2025 · Malmö Symphony Orchestra

Past events

Dec 15, 2025

The Magnificent North · Esbjerg Ensemble

11 - 12 Dec, 2025

NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra / Gautier Capuçon / Simone Young · Elbphilharmonie

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