Torleif Thedéen in Shostakovich’s Cello Concerto No. 2

Torleif Thedéen is one of Sweden’s most internationally known instrumentalists. This week he celebrates his 60th birthday as the soloist in Dmitrij Shostakovics second cello concerto, which had its premiere on the composer’s 60th birthday. The unruly character of the cello has been said to reminisce Shostacovich himself. As a composer in the Soviet Union, Shostacovich had to do a constant balancing act between his artistic conviction and what was possible to express in the political environment. Conductor Ingo Metzmacher visits Berwaldhallen and the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra with Anton Bruckner’s fourth symphony, the romantic, with its characteristic, haunting horn solo.