30. Main Evening Concert

This concert opens with a new quartet by Donnacha Dennehy commissioned by the Festival. Several years ago Pacifica Quartet recorded a complete set of Shostakovich string quartets alongside works by several other Soviet composers so his music is in their blood. His Second Quartet was written in tempore belli towards the end of World War II. This monumental work is one of the greatest anti-war works of the last century, its high point is the first violin’s long keening Recitative and Romance that mourns the millions of dead. After this devastation Mozart is the only answer, albeit an unlikely arrangement of a much-loved Concerto. Chamber versions of orchestral works gain in transparency what they lose in orchestral texture. Ibragimova leads the way in her final Festival concert this year.