Benjamin Britten dedicated his Symphony for Cello and Orchestra to his great friend Mstislav Rostropovich, who premiered it in Moscow in 1964.
Rostropovich would later become the NSO’s Music Director. Rostropovich appointed cellist David Hardy as associate principal cello in 1981. The following year, he was the top American prizewinner at the International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow. Rostropovich’s successor, Leonard Slatkin, named him Principal Cello in 1994. The NSO’s current music director, Gianandrea Noseda, spent 10 years as principal Guest conductor at the Mariinsky Theater in St. Petersburg. All of this history comes together in this performance of Benjamin Britten’s Cello Symphony, featuring David Hardy, and conducted by Gianandrea Noseda.
Maestro Noseda will also lead the orchestra in Bruckner’s Symphony No.6. Brahms once compared Bruckner’s works to “symphonic boa constrictors.” Not the most appreciated of composers during his lifetime, his sixth symphony, which he had called his “cheekiest” wasn’t performed until 1901, unfortunately he was no longer alive to enjoy its success.
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