@BeethovenfestBonn

Since making Bonn his home, Rostislav Krimer founded the East-West Chamber Orchestra in 2015 to unite outstanding soloists from all over the world and to create a forum for understanding. Together with Georgian pianist Giorgi Gigashvili, the audience favorite of Beethovenfest 2024, he brings stirring music from the former Soviet Union to the Pantheon Theater. At the center stands Shostakovich’s Chamber Symphony, an arrangement of his famous Eighth String Quartet for strings and timpani. This autobiographical work looks back on a life marked by political oppression and wars.

Estonian composer Erkki-Sven Tüür also commemorates the victims of war and displacement in his commissioned work (dedicated to the East-West Chamber Orchestra and Rostislav Krimer). He says of it: “›Leaving Behind‹ refers to the violence with which wars and disasters force people to leave everything behind. It is a prayer for the suffering souls.”Giorgi Gigashvili, newly awarded the Music Prize of German Business, performs the piano part in this work – as well as in the Piano Concerto by Galina Ustvolskaya. Shostakovich’s most prominent student was an uncompromising modernist who wrote spiritual and openly religious music. This attitude brought her condemnation under Soviet cultural policy.

Mieczysław Weinberg, another student of Shostakovich, also left behind a Chamber Symphony, which reveals the close proximity to his teacher’s musical language. Like Shostakovich’s work, it is based on one of his own string quartets, composed in 1944 while fleeing wartime attacks – audibly present in brutal march rhythms and desperate cries of lament.

The concert is part of the Music Prize of the Association of Arts and Culture of the German Economy, awarded to Giorgi Gigashvili in 2024. The jury honored him for his exceptional stage presence, musicality, and soloistic brilliance. The prize includes not only a monetary award but also the Kulturkreis tour, which enables appearances at renowned partner festivals – including Beethovenfest Bonn.