Fri 21.04.23 and Sat 22.04.23
Jaap van Zweden conducts Shostakovich
Jaap van Zweden, Kirill Gerstein

Jaap van Zweden conducts Shostakovich

Jaap van Zweden, Kirill Gerstein
Antwerp Symphony Orchestra
Fri 21.04.2023 and Sat 22.04.2023
Fri 21.04.23
and
Sat 22.04.23

When our Conductor Emeritus Jaap van Zweden takes to the rostrum, concert-goers know sparks will fly. Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 7 is a good opportunity to experience the Dutch conductor’s versatility first-hand. Turbulent rhythms, contrasting melodies, echoes of Russian melancholy and a larger-than-life orchestra: Shostakovich’s Seventh ticks all the boxes. While Mozart’s piano concertos are perhaps more modest in scope, they are equally compelling. The composer treated them as preparatory exercises for his operas. They caused a furore thanks to the uncanny combination of subtle rhetorical splendour and moving melodies. Kirill Gerstein is widely-acknowledged to be one of the best performers of Mozart’s piano concertos, making the keyboard sing in Mozart’s sparkling Seventeenth.

Programme

Mozart Concerto for Piano No. 17 in G major, KV 453

Shostakovich Symphony No. 7 in C major, opus 60, "Leningrad"

Performers

Jaap van Zweden

conductor

Kirill Gerstein

piano