University Symphony Orchestra - Sibelius Violin Concerto

Brinsley performed with the University of York Symphony Orchestra in its spring concert in the Sir Jack Lyons Concert Hall, conducted by John Stringer. The soloist in Sibelius’s Violin Concerto was Anna Lezdkan, then a third-year student at York. Around it stood María Huld Markan Sigfúsdóttir’s Clockworking, Wagner’s Prelude and Liebestod from Tristan und Isolde and Strauss’s Festival Prelude.¹

Programme

María Huld Markan Sigfúsdóttir Clockworking
Jean Sibelius Violin Concerto in D minor, Op. 47
Richard Wagner Prelude and Liebestod, from Tristan und Isolde
Richard Strauss Festival Prelude, Op. 61

Conductor: John Stringer · Violin: Anna Lezdkan

Martin Dreyer wrote that Anna Lezdkan “exhibited extreme calm under duress” and despatched the cadenza “with considerable panache”, and that the finale was “undeniably exciting”. The Wagner “built impressively into a long crescendo”, the violins finding “a sumptuously swelling blend” in the Liebestod.²

More: Anna Lezdkan on the Sibelius · The Liebestod in performance