Andris Nelsons conducts Weinberg, Schnittke, and Tchaikovsky — With Gidon Kremer

Gidon Kremer returns to Leipzig to perform a piece bearing his own name: Alfred Schnittke’s Violin Concerto No. 4, best known for its insistent Kremer theme. Schnittke, wanting to offer more than a simple dedication, spelled the violinist's name musically in the score, making this one of his most emblematic pieces! 

Violin virtuoso Kremer and conductor Andris Nelsons, two of Latvia’s brightest shining superstars, join the iconic Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra to perform Mieczysław Weinberg’s Jewish Rhapsody and Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 1, offering a poignantly contemplative Russian program. Weinberg, an interesting and gifted—and often overlooked—composer, celebrates his origins by putting into music his own personal history, that of a Jewish man forced to flee to Russia. For Tchaikovsky, his early composition recalls the landscape of the Russian plains with a touching, sometimes troubled lyricism.

Photo © Angie Kremer