Ludovic Morlot & Vaughan Williams by Shostakovich, Vaughan Williams, ket 02 geg 2024, Nuo (2024/2024), Dirigentas Ludovic Morlot, Musikkens Hus, Aalborg, Denmark

Sir Andrew Davis has sadly passed away after chemotherapy. Instead, the concert will be conducted by the French conductor Ludovic Morlot, who also conducted the end-of-season concert in May 2023. That concert received a whopping six stars in Northern Jutland, and reviewer Tore Mortensen described Morlot as "an excellent French conductor". The change of conductor also entails a change in the programme, as the evening's first, short work, Carl Nielsen's Saga-drøm, is omitted. The program thus still includes Shostakovich's Cello Concerto no. 1, op. 107 with none other than Paul Watkins from the now defunct, world-famous Emerson String Quartet in the soloist role. After the break, it's Vaughan Williams' Symphony No. 5. And who knows…. Perhaps Paul Watkins has a little surprise up his sleeve... The works of the evening In the concert's first work, it is about the cello and one of the most difficult works ever written for the instrument. Shostakovich wrote it for his good friend, Mstislav Rostropovich, who memorized the work in just four days. It is none other than Paul Watkins of the Emerson String Quartet who is the soloist in the cello concert this evening. In the second part is the British Vaughan Williams' beautiful fifth symphony. The composer's two previous symphonies were marked by the horrors he experienced in the ambulance service during the First World War, but with the fifth symphony many breathe a sigh of relief. After a rather avant-garde fourth symphony, the fifth is differently meditative and calm and filled with beautiful resonance. You can sit back, close your eyes and hear the vast expanses and the beautiful nature that the music describes.