Gennady Rozhdestvensky and the Iceland Symphony Orchestra
Conductor: Gennady Rozhdestvensky
Pianist: Viktoria Postnikova
Programme: W.A. Mozart: Piano concerto in C minor, K. 491
Dmitri Shostakovich: Symphony no. 7 (Leningrad)
Gennady Rozhdestvensky is widely acclaimed as one of today's greatest conductors. Born in Moscow in 1931, he studied at the Moscow Conservatoire, was the principal conductor of the Bolshoi Theatre between 1964 and 1970, and in 2000 was appointed the Bolshoi's General Music Director.
He headed the Moscow Radio Orchestra for a number of years and became the first Soviet conductor to be appointed principal conductor of various foreign orchestras: the BBC Symphony Orchestra in London, the Vienna Symphony Orchestra, and the Stockholm Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.
He has participated in dozens of world premieres of new or newly-discovered works, some of which were dedicated to him, with pieces by composers such as Prokofiev, Shostakovich, John Tavener and Alfred Schnittke. The Iceland Symphony Orchestra and the Reykjavík Arts Festival are particularly proud to invite him to appear in Iceland for the first time with Shostakovich’;;s Leningrad Symphony, a work which he has conducted all over the world to great acclaim.
Rozhdestvensky’;;s wife, Viktoria Postnikova, is one of Russia’;;s greatest pianists. She has recorded all the piano works of Tchaikovsky and Mussorgsky and received great acclaim worldwide for her performances. International Piano Magazine says of her playing: “She has fantastic imagination, a great understanding of the music, and perfect technique: polished yet also Russian and fiery where appropriate.”
Mozart’;;s great piano concertos, written in Vienna at the peak of his career, are among his most loved works and played a large part in establishing the genre of the piano concerto around the world. The dramatic and mysterious concerto in C minor K. 491, which contains some of the most expressive moments in Mozart’;;s output, is one of his greatest.
Dmitri Shostakovich began writing one of his largest and most important compositions, the Leningrad Symphony, shortly after Germany invaded Russia, on 22 June 1941, and laid siege to Leningrad. The composer is quoted as saying that the symphony was intended not only as a description of the German siege, but of “the city that Stalin destroyed and that Hitler merely finished off”. The music is a powerful and dramatic description of the precarious situation, with the famous “invasion” theme in the first movement and a jubilant finale as the city celebrates victory over its aggressors.