This concert is a veritable Russian feast celebrating two iconic composers from different centuries yet connected so closely to their country and folk. Although Shostakovich’s Cello Concerto No.1 does not involve a large battalion, from its opening measures “in the style of a jocular march,” the work already grabs the audience’s attention thanks to the soloist’s imposing command. Tchaikovsky’s Manfred is a programmatic symphony inspired by Lord Byron’s enigmatic, equivocal hero tortured by love. For example, in the first movement, tormented by a guilty past, Manfred wanders in the Alps seeking oblivion; and a frenzied orgy ends this monumental work.