BBC Symphony Orchestra at the Barbican

On the evening of Wednesday 26th March 2014 I attended the BBC Symphony Orchestra concert at the Barbican in the City of London. This performance featured Conductor Sakari Oramo and Violinist Leila Josefowicz. The programme consisted of Pohjola's Daughter - Sibelius, Violin Concerto - Esa-Pekka Salonen and Symphony No. 5 - Shostakovich.

Esa-Pekka Salonen’s 2009 award-winning Violin Concerto ‘Out of Nowhere’ is a portrait of the phenomenal soloist Leila Josefowicz, who gave this UK premiere. Praised at its LA Philharmonic premiere for its ‘pure, euphoric poetry’, it’s a work which lends itself to Josefowicz’s visceral intensity. This was a fantastic performance from Leila Josefowicz.

In its pulsing central movements, we may find echoes of Sibelius’s driving repetitions in his dark re-telling of Pojhola’s Daughter, in which the daughter of the north, astride a rainbow, mocks the love-lorn Väinämöinen. This concert ended with one of Shostakovich’s most popular symphonies, No 5: its heroic classicism may have affected the composer’s political rehabilitation, but its essential defiance came blazing through. I had another amazing night at the Barbican full of amazing Classical Music.

Russian Prom at The Royal Albert Hall

On Wednesday 17th August 2011 I attended BBC Prom 44 at The Royal Albert Hall with the Philharmonia Orchestra, Esa-Pekka Salonen - conductor, Zsolt-Tihamer Visontay - leader and Lisa Batiashvili - violin.

The programme for the evening consisted of The Age of Gold suite, Violin Concerto No.1 in A minor - Shostakovich, Petrushka (1947 version) - Stravinsky and Francesca de Rimini - Tchaikovsky.

The Age of Gold is music portraying a Soviet football team while Shostakovich's Violin Concerto is a very symphonic concerto. Lisa Batiashvili recorded this with Esa-Pekka Salonen on her album Echoes of Time which is a recording I highly recommend. It was brilliant to witness her play this live at this her Proms debut. A very powerful performance that charmed the audience at The Royal Albert Hall.

After the interval the Philharmonia Orchestra gave a stunning performance of Stravinsky's Petrushka which is a ballet based on St. Petersburg's Shrovetide fair. This outstanding evening of music finished with Tchaikovsky's Francesca da Rimini - symphonic fantasia after Dante. This was a rousing end to the concert as the powerful sounds of Tchaikovsky's symphonic poem filled the Hall like a hurricane.