Duorecital: Leonidas Kavakos & Yuja Wang

The fabulous pianist Yuja Wang is Konserthuset Stockholm’s special Artist-in-Residence this season. She is performing with the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra at two concerts, in her own piano recital and here: a duo programme with star violinist Leonidas Kavakos.

Yuja Wang is an enchanting virtuoso artist with an incredibly powerful draw. For around ten years, she has been establishing herself as an international star. She has worked with conductors such as Gustavo Dudamel, Michael Tilson Thomas, Daniel Barenboim and Claudio Abbado, and is a regular guest at Carnegie Hall in New York, among other places. Her first guest performance at Konserthuset was in January 2013, when she gave a piano recital.

Leonidas Kavakos has a long history with Konserthuset and the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra, and regularly appears with the world’s foremost orchestras (in recent years, also in the role of conductor).

Thus, two international stars will be joining forces in this richly varied programme.

Leos Janácek’s Sonata for Violin and Piano was written as World War I broke out, and Janácek recalled of the summer he composed the work: “I could just about hear the sound of steel clashing in my troubled head”. Schubert’s masterly Fantasia is based on variations of his most popular songs, Sei mir gegrüsst, and Debussy’s Violin Sonata focuses on the interplay of piano and violin. The parts challenge each other along the way until finally finding equilibrium. The programme concludes with Bartók’s original Violin Sonata.