Tchaikovsky’s 4th Symphony
In 2024, the award-winning, celebrated violinist James Ehnes released Sibelius: Works for Violin and Orchestra. This recording includes the composer’s only violin concerto, which Ehnes will also perform in this concert with the CSO. Conductor Keitaro Harada leads two American ensembles, the Savannah Philharmonic and the Dayton Philharmonic (as of the 2025-26 season), in addition to his role as the Permanent Conductor of the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra.
Tchaikovsky’s 4th Symphony, dedicated to a wealthy patroness he befriended but never met, explores humankind’s tumultuous bond with fate. The introduction is one of the most memorable in orchestral music. The music drips with emotion throughout the piece, with sounds ranging from melancholy and despair to dreamlike and whimsical. The message in the symphony’s lively, unmistakably Russian finale, he wrote to his financier client, was: “If you find no cause for joy in yourself, look to others.” Even though you can’t escape your fate, it seems to say, you will find that life goes on anyway.
MORE ON THE MUSIC & ARTISTS:
- James Ehnes has an extensive discography and has won many awards for his recordings, including two Grammys, three Gramophone Awards and twelve Juno Awards. In 2021, Ehnes was announced as the recipient of the coveted Artist of the Year title in the annual Gramophone Awards.
- Harada received the 2023 Sir Georg Solti Conducting Award, is a six-time recipient of The Solti Foundation U.S. Career Assistance Award, and in 2013, he was invited to the Bruno Walter National Conductor Preview.
- The rousing opening fanfare from Shostakovich’s Festive Overture was used to signal the start of each day during the 1980 Olympics.
PROGRAM
Dmitri Shostakovich (1906-1975)
Festive Overture, Op. 96
Jean Sibelius (1865-1957)
Violin Concerto in D minor, Op. 47
INTERMISSION
Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840-1893)
Symphony No. 4 in F minor, Op. 36
ARTISTS
Keitaro Harada, Conductor
James Ehnes, Violin
Charleston Symphony Youth Orchestra & Sinfonietta
