©Schott Promotion and Peter Anderson

Dear Music Lovers

It is with great joy that I am returning to the Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra and I am happy I will be able to present two of my works: the Second Violin Concerto “Metamorphosen” which was premiered in 1995 by Anne-Sophie Mutter and the MDR-Sinfonieorchester conducted by Mariss Jansons. This time in Japan the work will be performed by the great Japanese violinist Sayaka Shoji with whom I worked on several occasions, most recently in Spain and Sweden, where she gave an excellent performance of my concerto in Stockholm almost 2 years ago.

My second work which will be performed is the Prelude for Peace, which I composed to mark the 70th anniversary of the outbreak of the Second World War. The premiere was given in Kraków by greatest musicians from almost 80 best orchestras in the world, conducted by Maestro Valery Gergiev. I once said that the Prelude for Peace distils my childhood memories from the period of the German occupation and of the communist regime that came to dominate Poland after the war.

After the intermission, Ludwig van Beethoven’s great Symphony No. 7 which I often conduct will be performed.

I look forward to meeting the musicians and the audience in Tokyo and I would like to repeat that I am very happy to return to this great city and wonderful orchestra.

Kraków, 31 March 2019
Krzysztof Penderecki