Shostakovich & Sibelius

Superstar cellist Joshua Roman, who has the “virtuoso flair of Hendrix himself” (Gramophone), tackles one of the most difficult works ever composed for his instrument, Shostakovich’s tragic yet exciting First Cello Concerto — originally written for and premiered by the legendary Mstislav Rostropovich. The concert opens with Orpheus Undone, a suite drawn from contemporary American composer Missy Mazzoli’s ballet that re imagines the Greek myth of the musician Orpheus and his wife, Eurydice. We end the evening with Sibelius’s Second Symphony, which the composer called “a confession of the soul” and that, echoing Beethoven’s Fifth, concludes in sounds of glorious triumph.