Marta Gardolińska, conductor / Marc Bouchkov, violin

Polish conductor Marta Gardolińska came to international attention as a Young Conductor in Association at the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra during the 18/19 and 19/20 seasons. During that time, she built a strong relationship and trust with musicians that led her to conduct two weeks of phenomenally successful subscription and several regional tours and educational projects. In 2015 she was appointed Principal Conductor of the Akademischer Orchestervere Vienna and during the 2017-18 season she held the position of Principal Conductor and Artistic Director of the TU-Orchester Wien.

A Belgian violinist of Russian origin, Marc Bouchkov is a sophisticated musician of impeccable aplomb and has embarked on an international career performing with leading orchestras and conductors from all over Europe. He is one of the most multifaceted and unique artists of the new generation. His orchestral appearances include performances with the Mariinsky Theater Symphony Orchestra and Valery Gergiev, the HR-Sinfonieorchester and Christoph Eschenbach, the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra and Mariss Jansons, the Munich Philharmonic Orchestra and Philippe Jordan.

Jean Sibelius

 Violin Concerto for Violin and Orchestra in D Minor Op. 47

Johannes Brahms

Symphony No. 1 in C Minor, Op. 68

Violin Concerto for Violin and Orchestra in D Minor Op. 47

Year of composition: 1903

First performance: Helsinki, February 8, 1904

Movements:

1.Allegro moderato
2.Adagio di molto
3.Allegro, ma non tanto

Characteristic of the Concerto in D minor for violin and orchestra is Sibelius’s attitude towards a familiar problem known to all composers: that is, how to make classical forms, such as the symphony or the concert for solo instrument and orchestra, coexist with a language music that was now moving at a completely different speed than in the days of Mozart or Beethoven. Sibelius acts within those forms with full freedom, in search of an intense expressiveness that is characteristic of many of his compositions, including his only Concerto in D minor for violin and orchestra.

Symphony No. 1 in C Minor, Op. 68

Year of composition: 1862

First performance: 4 novembre 1876, Karlsruhe

Movements:

1.Un poco sostenuto
2.Andante sostenuto
3.Un poco allegretto e grazioso
4.Allegro non troppo, ma con brio

At the end of September the Symphony No. 1 in C minor is ready and there is barely time to prepare the performance, which Brahms has decided to grant to the town of Karlsruhe, both for the quantity of his orchestra and for the good reception that his previous compositions had had there. On November 4, 1876, the opera, directed by Felix Otto Dessoff, was successfully performed and the same happened three days later in Mannheim and then again in Munich, in the Wagnerian Leipzig, in Breslau. And so up to Vienna, on December 17, which was preceded by a critical performance of the four-hand piano version. The success was such as to induce the author to consider the test passed and to soon want to repeat himself in this very demanding context.