The evening dedicated to the composer Dmitri Shostakovich contains a pair of works seldom heard in concert. Shostakovich’s challenging final piano sonata is rarely played in the concert hall. In comparison, the chamber music version of his final symphony is almost completely unknown. Shostakovich’s Fifteenth Symphony is a work distilling the quintessence of his creative oeuvre and is widely considered as his musical legacy. Igor Levit joins a circle of personally invited colleagues to undertake the performance of this masterpiece. The virtuosity of the group of only seven instrumentalists takes up the challenge to uncover the richness of this orchestral score.
Dmitri Shostakovich: Piano Sonata No. 2 in B minor, Op. 61 (1942) and the Symphony No. 15 in A major, Op. 141a (1971) for piano trio and four percussion instruments (arranged by Viktor Derevianko).
PIANO Igor Levit VIOLIN Ning Feng
VIOLONCELLO Max Hornung
PERCUSSION Andreas Boettger, Klaus Reda, Moritz Wappler and Simon Etzold
DURATION ca. 90 minutes / incl. interval
An event by the KunstFestspiele Herrenhausen