Bartok / Shostakovich

On the tenth anniversary of her death, the Basque National Orchestra will pay tribute to María Luisa Ozaita, a pioneer in Spain in promoting music composed by women, with a performance of one of her final symphonic works, Siciliana. Next, pianist Josu de Solaun will tackle one of Béla Bartók’s most complex scores, the Piano Concerto No. 2, in which the soloist blends into the orchestral texture with a style that is almost percussive and of formidable rhythmic richness. Lastly, the Bulgarian conductor Delyana Lazarova, the winner of the Siemens Hallé International Competition, will round of the Season with Shostakovich’s Symphony no. 5. Premiered in 1937, its official presentation was as a  ‘creative response to justified criticism’ (in reality, veiled threats) that the composer had received from the Soviet authorities due to the modernism of his musical language. He restored his image with this symphony, though many still perceived in it a veiled indictment of Stalinist terror.