Ashkenazy conducts the New World Symphony | Philharmonia Orchestra

We welcome back Vladimir Ashkenazy for a performance of Dvorák’s timeless classic, the New World Symphony.

Heartfelt, spirited and filled with a love of life, the New World Symphony is a perfect marriage of the Bohemian sounds of Dvorák’s Czech homeland with the Native American music and African-American spirituals of his briefly adopted home in America. A dynamic opening launches a magical experience, as audience and orchestra alike share a journey through vibrant musical scenes, all framing arguably the most famous twelve minutes of orchestral music ever written: the soulful largo, with its evocative melody on cor anglais.

With a musical career spanning sixty years that has made him a household name, Vladimir Ashkenazy is one of the great musicians of our time. Joining him on stage is acclaimed violinist Sayaka Shoji, who performs Brahms’s ambitious Violin Concerto. Opening innocently from a single melodic line, the music grows to a symphonic scale, revealing some of Brahms’s most emotionally charged music. At the centre of it all is the violin – at some points wild and tempestuous, at others infinitely tender.