To open the SCO’s 2022/23 Season, Principal Conductor Maxim Emelyanychev is joined by two icons of Scottish musical life in a concert that is full of searing power and high emotion.

Nicola Benedettijoins us for the World Premiere of Sir James MacMillan’s Second Violin Concerto, a work that is dedicated to Nicola and written in memory of Krzysztof Penderecki, the great Polish composer who sadly passed away in 2020.

MacMillan’s long musical relationship with Benedetti forms the basis for this major new work, showcasing the violinist’s renowned technical agility and exquisite poetry. In his own words, the composer explains how this new work developed:

'My second violin concerto is written in one through-composed movement and is scored for a medium-sized orchestra. It opens with three chords, and the notes which the soloist plays in these (pizzicato) outline a simple theme which is the core ingredient for much of the music…When the soloist eventually plays with the bow, the character of the material sets the mood for much of the free-flowing, yearning quality of the music throughout'. Sir James MacMillan

This exciting new addition to the violin repertoire was jointly commissioned by the SCO, the Swedish Chamber Orchestra, the Adam Mickiewicz Institute and the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, and we are proud that the SCO will give the work its first public performances.

Maxim Emelyanychev brings our Season Opener to a cathartic conclusion with the raw emotions of Tchaikovsky’s ‘Pathétique’ Symphony, while The Chairman Dances, by US composer John Adams, kicks things off with his witty evocation of Chairman Mao tripping a foxtrot.

This will truly be a night to remember with all these creative forces involved and we hope you can join us in Perth, Edinburgh and Glasgow to delight in so much that is great about Scottish music!