Alina Ibragimova violin/director

Violinist Alina Ibragimova leads us from grief and fear to radiant joy in her deeply emotional concert with the SCO. Ibragimova is among today’s most compelling, perceptive soloists, combining a penetrating musical intellect with gripping, passionate playing – qualities very much on display in her intensely expressive programme.

Haydn composed his ‘Drum Roll’ Symphony expressly to impress, inspire and delight – and more than two centuries later, it still does all three. The sunny, colourful B-flat Suite was the piece that kick-started the 20-year-old Richard Strauss’ musical career, and its music feels just as fresh and appealing today.

Ibragimova’s concert centrepiece is a concerto she has long championed. Written during the dark first days of the Second World War, Karl Amadeus Hartmann’s Concerto funèbre draws on influences from Bruckner and Mahler in music of deep compassion, sadness and visionary hope.

Programme Notes