Czech Philharmonic • Helsinki

Dmitri Shostakovich (1906–1975) was one of the Soviet “export commodities for the West”, yet he kept a suitcase packed at all times in case of his arrest. The ambivalent attitude Stalin himself took toward the composer kept him in a state of uncertainty that affected both his life and his work. Stalin subjected him to public harassment while almost simultaneously showering him with the highest honours. Shostakovich composed his Violin Concerto No. 1 in A minor from July 1947 to March 1948, just as another ideological campaign was being unleashed against leading Soviet composers. A February 1948 resolution of the Central Committee of the Communist Party accused Shostakovich, Prokofiev, Khachaturian, and others of “formalism” and alienation from the people. Shostakovich lost his teaching posts in at the conservatoires in Moscow and Leningrad, performances of his works were banned, and he was forced to engage in public self-criticism. At the time, he wrote more serious works without knowing whether they would be performed. He dedicated the concerto to his longtime friend David Oistrakh. Shortly before he began writing the concerto, in May 1947 he had appeared with Oistrakh at the Prague Spring Festival: Shostakovich played the piano part of his Piano Trio No. 2 in E minor with Oistrakh on violin and Miloš Sádlo on cello.

A direct inspirational impulse from Prague cannot be reliably documented; what is certain is that from the outset Shostakovich counted on Oistrakh’s technical brilliance and his ability to sustain a large-scale form. The composer later characterized his First Violin Concerto more as a symphony for solo violin and orchestra, while Oistrakh compared the solo part to a major Shakespearean role requiring total emotional and intellectual commitment. In 1948, such a work, massive in scale, dark in character, and grotesque it its fast movements, could hardly satisfy the state’s demand for “optimistic” music, so Shostakovich set the concerto aside. The premiere finally took place on 29 October, two years after Stalin’s death, with Oistrakh accompanied by the Leningrad Philharmonic under the baton of Yevgeny Mravinsky. The public response was spontaneously enthusiastic, while official circles ignored the work—a response that, if anything, satisfied Shostakovich.

The centre of gravity of the four-movement work lies in its two expansive slow movements (Nocturne and Passacaglia). The first evokes a sense of dreaming and anxiety, heightened by the oppressive cantilena of the solo violin. The Scherzo then bursts in with a sudden grimace, propelled by a frenetic, almost dance-like motion that nevertheless does not seem entirely carefree. Here, Shostakovich used the motif D, E flat, C, and B natural, derived from the German note names D–Es–C–H, which represent an abbreviation of his name as transliterated into German: Dmitri Schostakowitsch (the motif later appeared in his Tenth Symphony and his Eighth Quartet). Themes from Jewish music are also heard here, likewise characterized by the combination of a seemingly cheerful surface and sadness beneath it. The heart of the concerto is the Passacaglia, whose eight-bar theme, introduced by the low strings, horns, and timpani, returns again and again beneath ever new layers of orchestration. The violin takes on the role of the principal speaker, leading the movement to the emotional climax of the entire work—a substantial solo cadenza that is the very antithesis of dazzling virtuoso display. It leads without a break into the final movement, a grotesquely sarcastic Burlesque that drives inexorably toward the conclusion. Because of the exhausting cadenza, at Oistrakh’s request the composer left the opening bars of the final movement to the orchestra alone, giving the soloist a moment to catch his breath.

Karen Gomyo, a violinist of Japanese descent, is one of the leading figures on the global music scene. She is celebrated for her ability to captivate audiences and forge a deep connection with them through her emotional and heartfelt performances. She was inspired to take up the violin by the violinist Midori, whom she heard perform at a concert in Montreal when she was five years old. A pivotal moment came four years later when she was given the opportunity to play in masterclasses led by the legendary pedagogue Dorothy DeLay—who subsequently invited her to study with her at Juilliard, where Karen Gomyo began her studies at the age of ten. Violinist Mauricio Fuks also played a very important role in her musical journey.

As a soloist, she has performed with numerous orchestras; in the 2025/2026 season, these included the New York Philharmonic, the Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, the National Symphony Orchestra Taiwan, the Residentie Orkest in The Hague, and the Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra. She performed with the Czech Philharmonic and Semyon Bychkov during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and 2021, when concerts were held under restricted conditions. Most recently, she shone in the Czech Republic in the spring of 2025 during the season-closing concert of the Janáček Philharmonic Ostrava; her performance of Dvořák’s Violin Concerto in A minor under the baton of Gilbert Varga thrilled the audience.

Karen Gomyo is also active in the field of chamber music—she has performed with a wide range of artists, including mezzo-soprano Susan Graham, pianist Enrico Pace, violinist Daishin Kashimoto, cellist Julian Steckel, flutist Emmanuel Pahud, trumpeter Tine Thing Helseth, and guitarist Ismo Eskelinen, with whom she recorded the duet album Carnival on BIS Records.

When she was fourteen, she first heard the music of Ástor Piazzolla, introduced to her by her mother. She was immediately captivated and remains a lover and performer of tango nuevo to this day. She has collaborated with Piazzolla’s longtime pianist and tango legend Pablo Ziegler, as well as bandoneon players Héctor del Curto, JP Joffre, and Marcelo Nisinman. In 2021, she released the album A Piazzolla Trilogy, which she recorded with the Strings of Orchestre National des Pays de la Loire and guitarist Stephanie Jones.

Each season she features a work written by a living composer—these include, for example, the Violin Concerto Adrano by Samy Moussa, Concerto No. 2 Mar’eh by Matthias Pintscher, Xi Wang’s YEAR 2020: Concerto for Violin, Trumpet, and Orchestra, and Samuel Adams’ Chamber concerto—all of which she premiered with leading North American orchestras.

As a violinist, host, and narrator, Karen Gomyo also participated in a documentary film about Antonio Stradivari titled The Mysteries of the Supreme Violin, produced by Japan’s NHK television and broadcast worldwide on the NHK WORLD channel.