Program

Dmitri Schostakowitsch
Konzert für Violoncello und Orchester Nr. 2 g-Moll op. 126

Intermission

Richard Strauss
„Ein Heldenleben“ - Tondichtung für großes Orchester op. 40

For Latvian conductor Andris Poga’s debut with the Konzerthausorchester Berlin, “A Hero’s Life” is on the programme. Those who would rather not ponder the stages of a warrior’s life set to music or even establish an autobiographical link to Richard Strauss can instead concentrate fully on what the musicians are performing musically in a full-bodied orchestra. Spanish cellist Pablo Ferrández also needs to display heroistic traits while performing Dmitri Shostakovich’s elegiac Second Cello Concerto from 1966 as soloist. Like all his works for this instrument, Shostakovich wrote it for a highly demanding friend, “Slava” Rostropovich, the greatest cellist of the 20th century.