Although originally composed as a sort of orchestral warm-up for all-Beethoven concert programs, Jörg Widmann’s Con brio sends audiences to the edge of their seats, bustling with energy and intensity as the orchestra shows off its virtuosic chops and tips its hat to the Romantic master. Here the work leads into masterpieces by two great Beethoven admirers, Brahms and Shostakovich. First comes Brahms’s lively Violin Concerto, a work well-balanced between devilishly difficult virtuosic fireworks and sonorously orchestrated melodies. The concert closes with Shostakovich’s Fifth Symphony, a deeply personal work that transports the listener from the depths of despair to heights of victory!

Leonidas Kavakos appears courtesy of Sony Classical.
Photo: Valery Gergiev © Valentin Baranovsky

Audio for this broadcast provided by Classical 105.9 FM WQXR, New York.