Programme:
Richard Wagner: Prelude to Act I of Lohengrin
Jean Sibelius: Violin Concerto in D minor, Op. 47
(Allegro moderato, Adagio, Allegro, ma non tanto)

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Sergej Prokofjev: Symphony No. 5 in B-flat major, Op. 100
(Andante, Allegro marcato, Adagio, Allegro giocoso)

The haunting Violin Concerto in D minor by Jean Sibelius, Finland’s greatest composer, is regarded as one of the pinnacles of the violin repertoire. The work demands a complete artist: one who is equal to its bravura technical challenges while also capable of mastering its powerful and romantic emotional charge. Evoking the “voice of the Nordic soul” on his legendary “ex-Kreutzer” Stradivari (1727) will be Grammy Award winner Maxim Vengerov. The violinist, who counted the great cellist and conductor Mstislav Rostropovich as a mentor, is described as an artist with a Renaissance spirit. He has been dazzling audiences around the world ever since he was five years old and first entered a recording studio at the age of ten – since then he has recorded more than 50 albums. Deeply committed to the study of music, he has also established himself as a conductor and teacher, reflecting his multifaceted artistic greatness.
Vengerov will be joined by the Georgian maestro Kakhi Solomnishvili, already well known to audiences in Slovenia as the new principal conductor of the Slovenian Philharmonic Orchestra. On this occasion the orchestra will conjure up its distinctive sound in a performance of the prelude to the first act of Wagner’s opera Lohengrin, which recounts the medieval adventures of the Knights of the Holy Grail. The evening will conclude with a symphonic work described by its Russian composer Sergei Prokofiev as “a hymn to free and happy Man, to his mighty powers, his pure and noble spirit”. The work is, of course, Prokofiev’s Symphony No. 5, of which its composer said: “It was born in me and clamoured for expression. The music matured within me. It filled my soul.”