Works by Pärt, Shostakovich and Dvořák

Daniel Spaw is a musical all-rounder at the conductor's podium for this concert. The US-born conductor, who is currently GMD in Bad Reichenhall, explores the soundscapes of the 19th and 20th centuries in this concert. It begins with Arvo Pärt's "Cantus" for strings and a bell. Pärt wrote this contemplative work in memory of Benjamin Britten, who died too young and whose 50th anniversary is being commemorated this year. The first violin concerto by Dmitri Shostakovich was included in this concert programme at the express wish of soloist Lea Birringer. In 1947, Shostakovich wrote a composition full of melancholy beauty on the one hand and virtuosic, biting irony on the other. Antonín Dvořák's Symphony No. 7, premiered in London in 1884, concludes the concert programme with a work that is sometimes reminiscent of the force of a Brahms symphony and yet bears Dvořák's unmistakable Bohemian signature.