Brussels Philharmonic, Leonidas Kavakos, Stéphane Denève + After Party Radio Martiko

“He plays it … like one born to it”, The Guardian wrote about Leonidas Kavakos’ performance of Shostakovich’s 1st Violin Concerto.  The intense work, full of anguish and fury, dates from 1948, but Shostakovich only dared publish it after the suffocating censorship of the Stalinist regime was over. Tchaikovsky lived long before Stalin, and could draw with impunity upon the darker layers of his soul in writing his 5th Symphony. The tragedy of a destiny that prevails over all is evident in every note of this work.

Flagey, Brussels Philharmonic