Simon Tedeschi & Roger Benedict – Shostakovich’s Viola Sonata

Extraordinary pianist Simon Tedeschi returns to Avoca with violist and conductor Roger Benedict, and a brand new program of soulful music for viola and piano.

Collaborating on musical projects for almost a decade, including the 2023 ARIA-nominated album, Debussy-Ravel, and shows with symphony orchestra, Tedeschi and Benedict reunite to perform Shostakovich's deeply felt viola sonata, the composer's last completed work, which seemed a farewell in which he referenced not only Beethoven but all 15 of his own symphonies, and other significant works.

Described by a critic as "like the catharsis in a tragedy; life, struggle, overcoming, purification by light, exit into immortality", it is the moving centrepiece of this concert, bookended by the music of two Ukrainian composers: romantic rarities by Reinhold Glière, and the mesmerising mystical sounds of Valentin Silvestrov.