February 9, 2025 | Zaryadye Concert Hall
Soloist – Leonid Zhelezny, violin
Conductor – Arif Dadashev
Atterberg. Concerto for violin and orchestra, Op. 7
Sibelius. Symphony No. 2 in D major, Op. 43
The NPR's new program will display the art of two greats of Northern Europe, two contemporaries and representatives of the later Romanticism – Jean Sibelius and Kurt Atterberg. For both of them the Swedish language was native (Sibelius was from a family of Finnish Swedes). Both had, along with music education, another profession - “more practical”. Sibelius was a lawyer, Atterberg was an engineer. However, if Sibelius quickly renounced the law career, Atterberg continued his engineering work up to his late years. And last but not the least, they both got recognition in their life time, their works were often played and brought the deserved success to the authors.
On the podium there will appear Arif Dadashev, former participant of the NPR's conductor training group and now the conductor at the Stanislavsky and Nemirovich-Danchenko Moscow Academic Music Theater and an invited conductor at the Mariinsky Theater. The violin part will be played by Leonid Zhelezny, alumnus of the Moscow Conservatory, award winner in international contests such as the Beethoven Competition in Austria, Leopold Auer Competition in Saint Petersburg, Vladimir Spivakov Competition in Ufa, Vaclav Huml Competition in Croatia, contests in Harbin and Stockholm. It will be his debut with the National Philharmonic Orchestra of Russia.
Kurt Atterberg's role in music was multi-functional – composer, conductor, music critic and public person. He was an ardent proponent of national music, took part in founding the Society of Swedish Composers and the Swedish Performing Arts Society (both still active at present). Atterberg's oeuvre includes five operas, three ballets, incidental, symphonic and chamber music as well as several Concertos the first of which, the Violin Concerto, was completed just at the verge of World War I. Premiered in February 2014 in Göteborg under the composer's baton (the soloist was Sven Kjellstrom) it is a traditional three-movement composition following the classic-romantic canonic forms. Atterberg mentioned Brahms, Reger and Russian composers among his artistic landmarks.
Jean Sibelius's Second Symphony, which was first performed in Helsinki on March 8, 1902, conducted by the author, met the greatest acclaim ever heard of in Finland. Its success was due to the surprising correspondence of the music to the desires of Finns who protested against integration with the Russian Empire. However, Sibelius denied having any political motives in his music, which was pure art for him.
In spring 1901 he went to Italy where he experienced “amazing thoughts about the essence of music” and interest in the pre-Romantic aesthetics. He wrote some sketches for a composition about Don Giovanni, then a theme marked by the word Christus in the manuscript, and thought of a symphonic poem based on Dante's Divine Comedy. None of the ideas was finished, but the Italian vignettes were later used in Movement 2 of the Second Symphony where, according to the composer\s notes, Don Giovanni met Death, while the Christus theme turned into its second motif. The pastoral Allegretto (Movement I) serves as the Prologue, The brisk Scherzo is followed immediately by the triumphing Finale full of powerful vital force which so much impressed the composer's compatriots.