Performances: Jan 26 @8pm; Jan 29 @3pm

Michelle Cann, piano

Shostakovich’s transcendent Fifth Symphony uses the coded language of musical irony that was off limits in the repressive Soviet regime. The trailblazing Finnish conductor Eva Ollikainen conducts this nuanced score with characteristic thoughtfulness, and her steady hand navigates the turbulent scenes from Britten’s dark tale of social isolation. Michelle Cann, a leader in the revival of Florence Price’s long-overlooked canon, is known for delivering a “stirring and authoritative performance” that maximizes the “technical sparkle and probing humanity” of Price’s action-packed concerto (The Philadelphia Inquirer).