Olga Kern

Join us for the NJPAC debut of the National Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine, performing an afternoon of some of Russia's greatest works conducted by Volodymyr Sirenko and featuring the extraordinary pianist Olga Kern as guest soloist. The National Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine will be led by Sirenko, its Artistic Director and Chief Conductor. Critics have compared Sirenko to other brilliant conductors, such as Esa-Pekka Salonen and Simon Rattle. Kern will play Rachmaninoff's Second Piano Concerto, an epic achievement whose beautiful themes and famously melodic second movement are heard from film soundtracks to Sinatra standards. Also on the program are two Tchaikovsky favorites: the sprightly Polonaise from his opera Eugene Onegin, and the soul-embracing Fifth Symphony, a Romantic-era masterpiece later reclaimed by the disheartened populace of World War II Russia. The concert opens with the Symphony in C by Ukrainian composer Maxim Berezovsky.