Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto

Under the baton of Seattle Symphony Associate Conductor Sunny Xia, brilliant Dutch musician Simone Lamsma makes her Benaroya Hall debut performing one of the all-time violin classics, Tchaikovsky’s glorious Violin Concerto. Tchaikovsky was inspired to write this thrilling Romantic composition during a stay on the shores of Lake Geneva in Switzerland. He worked with his former student and object of infatuation Iosif Kotek, to whom he wished to dedicate the piece, though he changed his mind for fear of gossip. Xia also conducts Dvořák’s folk melody-filled Eighth Symphony, which evokes the pastoral beauty of the composer’s native Bohemia with tempestuous passion and grace.