SJOSTAKOVITSJ, GUBAJDULINA OG GERSHWIN

The Academy of Music in Tromsø presents music by three different composers, each of whom has left a mark on the history of music throughout the 20th century and beyond. Music by the Russian master Dmitri Shostakovich will make up the majority of the program, but we will also hear music by the American composer George Gershwin and Sofia Gubaidulina, who is one of the most important composers of our time.

Dmitri Shostakovich (1906-1975) was a Russian composer during the Soviet era, one of the 20th century's foremost chamber musicians, and was at times both highly valued and harshly criticized in his homeland.

Sofia Gubaidulina (1931-) from Chistopol, Tatarstan, Soviet Union (now Russia) is one of the world's leading contemporary composers. Her works are characterized by religious mysticism with features taken from several different religious directions: the Muslim, the Orthodox, the Jewish and the Roman Catholic. It is thanks to Dmitri Shostakovich that Gubaidulina stuck to what she herself calls her "creative necessity".

The American composer George Gershwin (1898-1937) was the son of Jewish Russian-American immigrants who came to the United States around 1891. He began playing the piano at the age of 10, and achieved early success as a composer. Some of his most famous works include "Rhapsody in Blue", the opera "Porgy and Bess" and songs such as "Embraceable you" and "I Got Rhythm". As a young man, Gershwin went to Paris with the desire to study with Nadia Boulanger and Maurice Ravel. Both are said to have rejected him on the grounds that they would not destroy his jazz-influenced style with rigorous classical studies. "Why become a second-rate Ravel when you're already a first-rate Gershwin?", Ravel supposedly said. George Gershwin remains one of the most significant American composers of the last century.

Program:
Dmitrij Sjostakovitsj: Chamber Symphony in c-minor, op. 110a
Dmitrij Sjostakovitsj: String quartet no. 1 i C-major, op.49, for wood wind
Dmitrij Sjostakovitsj: Extracts of Jazz-suite, for saxophone orchestra
Sofia Gubajdulina: Two ballads, for trumpet and piano
Caroline Shaw: Entr´acte for strings

Medvirkende:
The Academy of Music - Chamber Orchestra led by Miriam Helms Ålien
The Academy of Music - Wood wind ensemble conducted by Lars Asbjørnsen
The Academy of Music - Saxophone Orchestra led by Lars Lien
Åsne Rødsand Bøe - Trumpet
Kristin Vik Hofseth - Trumpet
Ole Bolås - Piano