Shostakovich Symphony No. 1
Shostakovich Symphony No. 1
- Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra
- Heinz Hall
Hypnotic • Impassioned • Satirical
The work that began Shostakovich’s career
The Program
Esa-Pekka Salonen: Helix [ PITTSBURGH PREMIERE ]
Jean Sibelius: Violin Concerto
Dmitri Shostakovich: Symphony No. 1
About this Performance
Before Shostakovich was known to poke fun at Stalin in his music, he instead thumbed his nose at other composers. Interwoven in his First Symphony, the young 18-year-old filled his composition with schoolboy pranks that listeners immediately fell in love with.
Hear Shostakovich’s first classic alongside two Finnish icons, featuring Sibelius’ cherished Violin Concerto played by one of the best of our time, Augustin Hadelich, as well as the Pittsburgh premiere of Esa-Pekka Salonen’s evocative Helix.
Season Themes
This season, we're showcasing three themes: Voices of Today, Made in Pittsburgh, and Follow the Piano. Each highlights a series of concerts carefully crafted to showcase art with meaning and purpose for our community. This specific concert highlights:
Voices of Today
Be the first in Pittsburgh to see and hear an array of the most outstanding and creative voices in orchestral music, including three world premieres, one US premiere, 12 Pittsburgh premieres and 15 new stars of the stage. View all concerts →
The Artists
Featuring
Augustin Hadelich
violin
Juraj Valčuha
conductor
Conductor Juraj Valčuha is recognized for the effortless expressiveness and the depth of his musicianship. With a sharp baton technique and a natural stage presence, it is the impressive ease of his interpretations that translate even the most complex scores into immersive experiences.
Since June 2022, Juraj Valčuha has been music director of the Houston Symphony. He was music director of the Teatro di San Carlo in Naples and first guest conductor of the Konzerthausorchester Berlin. He was also chief conductor of the RAI National Symphony in Turin from 2009 to 2016.
Born in Bratislava, Slovakia, he studied composition and conducting in Saint Petersburg and Paris. His international career began in 2004 on the podium of the Orchestre National de France, followed by debuts in the United Kingdom with the Philharmonia Orchestra, in Germany with the Munich Philharmonic, and in the United States with the Pittsburgh Symphony. He has since conducted the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, Dresden Staatskapelle, Munich Philharmonic, Berlin Philharmonic, Swedish Radio Symphony, Concertgebouw Orchestra, Rotterdam Philharmonic, Orchestre de Paris, Maggio Musicale in Florence, Filarmonica della Scala, NHK Symphony and Montréal Symphony
His engagements in 2024-2025 took him to the Houston, Pittsburgh, San Francisco, Chicago as well as to the Yomiuri Nippon Orchestra in Tokyo. On the European stage he performs Tristan & Isolde at the Bavarian State Opera and at the Deutsche Oper Berlin, Salomé at the Semperoper in Dresden, The Cunning little Vixen at the Paris Opéra Bastille. He leads concerts with the RAI Orchestra, the Orchestre National de France, the NDR Hamburg, SWR Stuttgart, the London Philharmonic and the Munich Philharmonic
Accessibility:
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- Heinz Hall
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600 Penn Avenue
Pittsburgh PA 15222 -
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- Box office phone: 412-392-4900
