site.btaLatvian Violinist Gidon Kremer Performs with Sofia Philharmonic

Latvian violinist Gidon Kremer will give a concert with the Sofia Philharmonic at Bulgaria Hall in the capital on the evening of Thursday, May 21. They will perform under the baton of Nayden Todorov.

The programme of the show features two musical works themed around memory, time and man, and infused with emotion which is hard to forget, the orchestra management says. The centrepiece is Styx by Giya Kancheli, one of the most personal and moving works by the Georgian composer, specially written to be played by Kremer. It will be performed together with Bulgaria's National Philharmonic Choir.

The second half of the concert is dedicated to Symphony No. 9 in E-flat major by Dmitri Shostakovich. Written in 1945, the work surprised audiences from its very premiere. Instead of triumphant music celebrating the end of World War II, Shostakovich created something more ironic, more restless and far more human. Behind the lightness and sarcasm, listeners can sense the tension of the era and the Soviet-Russian composer's characteristic way of saying much more than appears at first glance, the Sofia Philharmonic management says.

Gidon Kremer was born in Riga, Latvia in 1947. He began studying the violin at the age of four under the guidance of his father and grandfather, both distinguished string players. After early success in Latvia, he continued his studies at the Moscow Conservatory with David Oistrakh.

Kremer rose to international prominence after winning major prizes at the Queen Elisabeth Competition, the International Music Competition of Montreal, and the International Tchaikovsky Competition, and first prize at the Paganini Competition. Over the past five decades, he has established himself as one of the most distinctive violinists of his generation, performing with leading orchestras and conductors around the world. In 1997, he founded the Kremerata Baltica chamber orchestra to support young musicians from the Baltic states. Kremer performs on a 1641 violin by Nicola Amati.