Patricia Kopatchinskaja

Violinist Patricia Kopatchinskaja has to go through an eight-minute virtuoso test of endurance at the beginning of Salonen's Violin Concerto, and as anyone who has experienced this musician live knows: after four minutes at the latest, you will have been swept off your feet. In the third movement, even faster than the first, we find ourselves in a modern-day metropolis. We couldn’t be much further from Wagner's Germanic forest – and yet after Kopatchinskaja's high-octane display, we’re sure to hear Wagner’s Walküre Prelude in a new way – an incredibly kinetic piece of music! When winter storms give way to blissful moons, even Wagner skeptics will be won over – thanks also to Camilla Nylund and Bryan Register, the tragic lovers, and Dimitry Ivashchenko, the betrayed and wicked husband.