Double game

Program WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART [1756—1791] Ballet music for the opera Idomeneo K. 367 (excerpts)

BENJAMIN BRITTEN [1913—1976] Double Concerto for Violin, Viola and Orchestra

DMITRI SHOSTAKOVICH [1906—1975] Symphony No. 15 in A major op. 141

It's worth a second look! Benjamin Britten's Double Concerto for Violin, Viola and Orchestra is one of the extremely prolific composer's late rediscoveries. The Double Concerto was written in spring 1932 while Britten was studying at London's Royal College of Music. With his early work, which was only posthumously premiered in 1997, General Music Director James Gaffigan focuses on the orchestra's solo qualities and contrasts it with the late work of a contemporary: In his 15th and last symphony, Dmitri Shostakovich takes stock of an artistic life that was driven by a double playing with Soviet cultural policy. He looks back sarcastically on music history, quoting Wagner's Ring, Rossini's Guillaume Tell and himself. Gaffigan takes a further look back at a personal favorite piece: In 1781 Mozart created ballet music as a festive epilogue to his opera Idomeneo, which is rarely heard today in concert halls and even less frequently on theatre stages.