Bella Hristova

Bella Hristova is a violinist appearing as soloist with the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra and the Quad City Symphony Orchestra. Her upcoming programs pair Dvořák's Violin Concerto with his Symphony No. 5, and Britten's Violin Concerto with Sibelius's Symphony No. 1, giving listeners a chance to hear her in two contrasting concerto styles.

In these upcoming concerts, listeners can expect two very different violin concertos. The Dvořák Violin Concerto in A minor is built on warm, singing melodies with a folk-inflected finale, full of the kind of open-hearted lyricism the composer brought to his orchestral writing generally, paired here with his Symphony No. 5, an earlier, sunnier work in F major. The Britten Violin Concerto is a tougher, more restless piece written on the eve of the Second World War, with a soloist part that ranges from anguished high lines to a long, unsettled closing passacaglia, a set of repeating bass patterns under shifting melody. It is programmed alongside Sibelius's First Symphony, a brooding, brass-heavy work that opens with a solo clarinet over a hushed timpani roll. Across both programs, a soloist has to move between Romantic warmth and twentieth-century intensity.