Armenian State Symphony Orchestra

In his second appearance this season, Sergey Smbatyan returns to the podium this time with the Armenian State Symphony Orchestra, an ensemble he founded in 2005 and which he has led as Artistic Director and Principal Conductor ever since. He opens the concert with music written by fellow Armenian, Aram Khachaturian, whose ballet Spartacus includes the famous and expressive Adagio. British violinist Chloë Hanslip makes a welcome return performing Mendelssohn’s masterful Violin Concerto, one of the composer’s most beloved works. The orchestra brings the concert to a close with Tchaikovsky’s fateful Fourth Symphony. The work moves through moments of melancholy, anguish and poignancy, from its ominous opening bars to its frenzied finale.