Under the motto Wagner II, the 4th SYMPHONY CONCERT opens with the prelude to Richard Wagner's only comic opera, THE MASTERSINGERS OF NUREMBERG. Four years before the opera's premiere, the prelude was launched as a concert piece in its own right, which very effectively exposes the main themes of the opera. After the TANNHÄUSER fiasco, the plan was to set light, cheerful material to music that would finally give Wagner – chronically broke – a breakthrough on the big stages of the world.
Maurice Ravel's "Concerto for the Left Hand" combines powerful sounds with delicate orchestration and jazzy elements. It was commissioned by the Austrian pianist Paul Wittgenstein, who lost his right arm in a war injury, commissioned numerous works from leading composers and thus created an extensive "one-handed" repertoire. The realization of the work posed great challenges for both the composer and the pianist. The result is a work of great intensity, power, sensuality and beauty. Kenichiro Kojimawill interpret this work as a soloist. In 2015 he was diagnosed with focal dystonia and his right hand lost its function. The young Japanese pianist showed ingenuity and determination, rehearsed a left-hand solo repertoire and successfully competed in several competitions.
With his operas, Dmitri Shostakovich fell into disrepute in the Stalinist Soviet Union and was publicly branded an enemy of the people. In order not to further antagonize the political leadership, the fifth symphony was written, which superficially seems to convey the message with understandable, romantic-oriented music: "Through the struggles of life to victory!" and especially with its furiously jubilant finale became the supposed model work. It was only in his memoirs that Shostakovich confessed that the triumphal march was actually a death march: “In my opinion it should be clear what is going on in the Fifth. The celebration is forced under threats... It would take a complete idiot not to hear that.”
The Schleswig-Holstein Symphony Orchestra plays under the baton of Malaysian-born conductor Harish Shankar , who is currently 1st Kapellmeister at the Meiningen State Theater. In addition to the Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra, Shankar's concert activities in recent seasons have brought him together with numerous orchestras throughout Europe, including the Carinthian Symphony Orchestra in Klagenfurt, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, the BBC Philharmonic and the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra in Great Britain, the Orchester Philharmonique Royal de Liège, the Düsseldorfer Symphoniker, the Karlovy Vary Symphony Orchestra, Orquesta Sinfónica de Trujillo, Vaasa City Orchestra and Jyväskylä Sinfonia.
