FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Shostakovich: A Light from the Darkness
Soloist: Evelyn Estava, Violin
Date: Saturday, March 10, 2018
Time: 7:00 PM
Location: Crescent Avenue Presbyterian Church, 716 Watchung Avenue, Plainfield, NJ
$65 reserved seating/$45 general admission / $30 seniors & students
For tickets & information: 908-561-5140 / www.plainfieldsymphony.org
Plainfield, NJ – On March 10, 2018 at 7 pm, the Plainfield Symphony Orchestra, led by conductor Charles Prince, will feature the opportunity to experience more of the music of the great 20th century composer, Dmitri Shostakovich. Concertmistress Evelyn Estava will step into the role of soloist in the tourde-force Violin Concerto No. 1 followed by the rarely performed Symphony No 9. Shostakovich completed his Violin Concerto No. 1 in A minor, Op.77 in 1948 but locked it away for 7 years during a time of severe censorship of artists in Soviet Russia. After Stalin’s death, the concerto was premiered to critical acclaim by Russian violinist David Oistrakh. Composed in four movements of symphonic weight, this concerto calls on everything in the violinist's technical arsenal as well as vast physical and emotional stamina. Symphony No. 9 in E-flat major, Op 70 is one of Shostakovich's most accessible and well-written compositions, a short, small-scale neoclassical work in 5 movements. It was composed over a short span of four weeks in August 1945—only three months after the Allied victory in Europe. In the words of conductor Phillip Lenberg, “Shostakovich challenged the notion of praising the Soviet Union for its military victory, instead mocking the anti-Semitic martial state of Stalinist Soviet Union and using the platform of a Ninth Symphony to celebrate the Soviet Union’s victory of the Great Patriotic War to be a voice for prosecuted Jewish people within the Soviet Union.”
CONTACT: Peter Lomonaco
(908) 561-5140
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