Patricia Kopatchinskaja & Franz Schubert Filharmonia

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Image courtesy of Palau de la Musica Catalana

While Rachmaninov was composing Symphony No. 2, he wrote: "To hell with symphonies! I will never use this form again! I don't know how to write symphonies and I also don't feel like doing any!" Fortunately, he ignored his own words and finished the work in 1908. Years later, he wrote another. La Segunda took a lot more work, but once it was released it was an undeniable success. It is a great, energetic work, epic in many moments with a tremendous ending. 

Although Schostakovitch is recognized as the great symphonist of the 20th century, his solo instrument concertos are also indispensable works. He began to compose the Violin Concerto No. 1 in 1947, however, because of the criticism he suffered at that time from the Soviet regime, he kept the score hidden away. Secretly and without mention, he completed it and it was performed by the great David Oistrakh who premiered it in 1955.

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