Triumph

Robert Trevino closes this Season which, after having travelled through the darkest corners of humanity, at last ends in a brilliant celebration. Chopin composed Piano Concerto No. 2 to play it himself on his tours and draws heavily from the Italian bel canto. It is an energetic and youthful creation that exploits the best qualities of pure-bred pianists such as Yulianna Avdeeva, who returns to our Season after her successful début with the Basque National Orchestra barely a year ago. And we finish just as we started: with music by Shostakovich. But if Symphony No. 8 was tragic and terrible, the Symphony No. 15 that we will listen to here is brimming with a halo of freedom and optimism. It was his last symphony, written after Stalin was gone, and in it Shostakovich does a retrospective of his life and influences, including fragments of Wagner and Rossini, and his own previous music.