Temirkanov cancels two April concerts because of illness.

Conductor Yuri Temirkanov has cancelled two concerts scheduled at S. Cecilia in April due to persistent ill health. On 6-8 April his place will be taken by the Chinese conductor Xian Zhang, the musical director of the New Jersey symphony orchestra and the first woman principal guest conductor of the BBC symphony orchestra. She will conduct the S. Cecilia orchestra and chorus playing music by Haydn, Verdi and Shostakovich. The Russian composer’s symphony no 5 was approved politically and was overwhelming popular with the audience when it was first performed in 1937. The official party critics considered that Shostakovich had now been rehabilitated after his “disgrace” with Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District and symphony no 4, which the composer  “withdrew”  before it could be premiered in 1936 and which was not performed until 1961 after Stalin's death.

Temirkanov’s second engagement on 12-14 April will be conducted  by Alexander Sladkovsky, the chief conductor and artistic director of the Tatarstan symphony orchestra. The S. Cecilia orchestra and chorus will play music by Rimsky-Korsakov, Rachmaninoff and Tchaikovsky, with Nikolay Luganski piano. Auditorium Parco della Musica, Viale P. de Coubertin 30, www.auditorium.com.