Manfred Honeck/Andrei Ioniță - Johann Strauss, Saint-Saëns, Šostakovič

The concert at the Auditorium Parco della Musica represents a double celebration: on the one hand, the bicentenary of the birth of Johann Strauss the Younger - the author of The Blue Danube - whose Overture A Night in Venice, the polka A Train Ride and the Frühlingsstimmen (Voices of Spring) will be performed, and on the other, the fiftieth anniversary of the death of Dmítrij Šostakovič (1906-1975), whose Symphony No. 5 will be conducted by the Austrian conductor Manfred Honeck. The programme also includes Camille Saint-Saëns' First Cello Concert.

We therefore go from Strauss's waltz, which, with its melodies and elegant movements is almost an emblem of the Viennese balls of the Belle Époque, to Šostakovič’s Fifth Symphony, one of the most well-known, appreciated and performed works by the Russian master, which had a very troubled drafting in the context of the Soviet Russian regime. Finally, at the centre, the serene and enveloping Cello Concert by Saint-Saëns performed by the bow of Andrei Ioniță - who replaces Mischa Maisky - at his debut at Santa Cecilia. Mischa Maisky in fact, whose presence was scheduled for these concerts, had to withdraw for health reasons.

The National Academy of Santa Cecilia Orchestra; the concert is in collaboration with the Palazzetto Bru Zane in Venice - Centre de musique romantique française.

Photo credits: courtesy of the Auditorium Parco della Musica official site