Brahms: Double Concerto

Friday, Jan. 22, 2027 at 7:30 PM in The Buddy Holly Hall of Performing Arts & Sciences

Come early at 6:00 PM for a pre-concert performance in the lobby by a local Lubbock artist, to be announced soon!

Three works that represent the depths of life and emotion.

Brahms’s Double Concerto is the complex, final orchestral work by the famed German composer. The intricate performance between the featured violin and cello is a tribute to his friendship with violinist Joseph Joachim. Brahms wrote the piece as a peace offering to his friend, who he became estranged from after Joachim’s divorce. Brahms weaves the musical motif of the notes “A-E-F” throughout the piece, a nod to the F-A-E Sonata he wrote with other composers as a gift to Joachim years prior. Joachim’s personal motto was “Frei aber einsam” (free but lonely).

Next Week’s Trees (2023) by Viet Cuong is an ethereal work that brings together poetry, nature, and the triumph of humanity. The title comes from Mary Oliver’s poem “Walking To Oak-Head Pond, And Thinking Of The Ponds I Will Visit In The Next Days And Weeks,” which explores themes of uncertainty, hope, and survival. Cuong wrote the piece during the COVID-19 Pandemic, inspired by the sentiment that in even in unprecedented times, life finds a way. The piece transports the listener with the ambience of a forest. It begins by establishing tension through an extended pizzicato section before branching into lush sounds that grow like trees and rays of sunlight.

Sibelius’s Symphony No. 2 is a lush, romantic piece that contends with death, grief, and the triumph of resurrection. He began writing the work while staying in an Italian mountain villa after the death of his daughter. Sibelius’s soundscapes feel reminiscent of the cold winds of his native Finland. Paired with the apparent victory of life over death in the piece, Finnish audiences dubbed the symphony the "Independence Symphony,” in reference to the struggle for Finnish independence against the Russian Empire.

Cuong – Next Week’s Trees

Brahms – Double Concerto in A minor, op. 102

Sibelius – Symphony No. 2 in D Major, op. 43

Evgeny Zvonnikov, violin

Michael Newton, cello

Guest conductor, to be announced

This performance is also made possible in part by The CH Foundation; Helen Jones Foundation, Inc.; the Lubbock Symphony Guild; the Texas Commission on the Arts; the National Endowment for the Arts, and a grant by the City of Lubbock as recommended by Civic Lubbock, Inc.

This performance takes place in the Lubbock Cultural District.

Artist Bios

Evgeny Zvonnikov received his music degree from Saint Petersburg State Conservatory in Russia. He is a lecturer of violin at West Texas A&M University and a member of the Harrington String Quartet. He serves as principal second violin and Justice Phil and Carla Johnson Endowed Chair of the Lubbock Symphony Orchestra. He also serves as Associate Concertmaster in Wichita Symphony orchestra and as a Concertmaster in Wichita Grand Opera. Zvonnikov has won several international competitions, performed with symphonies across the globe, and taught masterclasses on multiple continents. From 2010-2014 he was a second violinist of Grammy-Nominated Saint Petersburg String Quartet, and is a founding member of The Orfeo Trio. He lives in Canyon, TX and loves to travel and explore new places all around the world.

Michael Newton is the principal cellist and Mary Francis Carter Endowed Chair of the Lubbock Symphony Orchestra. He is an experienced educator, currently serving as Orchestra Director at Atkins Middle School in Lubbock ISD.