3rd Symphony Concert

“One breath before you fall—and no one is there to catch you.”

A single cello, raw and vulnerable, feels its way through fog and gravity. In her cello concerto *Before We Fall*, Icelandic composer Anna Thorvaldsdottir doesn’t write a solo—she unleashes a force field: the orchestra breathes, crackles, pulls, and pushes. Sound becomes landscape, resistance, a pull. You get the feeling: something is about to happen. The cello hovers—and yet it could tip over at any moment. *Before We Fall* is music like a moment just before the leap, a vibrating moment between control and loss of control.

Dmitri Shostakovich suffered under the Stalinist system throughout his life. Many nights he sat with his suitcases packed, not knowing whether he might still be taken away and sent to one of the camps. Shostakovich grappled with the senselessness of violence. He conceived his Eighth Symphony as a requiem for the losses on all sides. Until the very end, the Russian composer managed to give musical form to his protest. His Eighth is a moving testament against war, hatred, and incitement.

Anna Thorvaldsdottir (b. 1977): Before We Fall (Cello Concerto)

Dmitri Shostakovich (1906–1975): Symphony No. 8

Conductor: André de Ridder
Freiburg Philharmonic Orchestra

INTRODUCTION | 6:45 p.m.