The program kicks off with the world premiere of South Korean composer Unsuk Chin's Violin Concerto No. 2! The first concerto by the former student of György Ligeti (who also composed the hit 2007 opera Alice in Wonderland) is already considered a repertoire standard, but she had not planned to write a second. Leonidas Kavakos's extraordinary talent won her over, inspiring her to compose this new work entitled Scherben der Stille (Shards of Silence)—a perfect 2020s counterpoint to two works from the 1920s: Sibelius's sublime Symphony No. 7, the Finnish master's final symphony completed in 1924, and Bartók's Suite from The Miraculous Mandarin, a pantomime ballet that premiered in 1928.

Leonidas Kavakos appears courtesy of Sony Classical.