Marin Alsop conducts Shostakovich

Marin Alsop’s first outing at the helm of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra offers a dramatic beginning and end, and a touch of joie de vivre in the middle.

Used to great effect in his monumental Third Symphony, the main theme of Copland’s Fanfare for the Common Man is as emotive as it is direct and powerful, evoking the struggle of the Second World War.

Renaud Capuçon poetically performs Mendelssohn’s much-loved work; the most evergreen of violin concertos. In contrast, after the interval, the audience is sure to experience Shostakovich’s despair with Stalin, as it is unleashed in the composer’s magnificent Symphony No.7.