16 April brings a major anniversary for Pēteris Vasks. One of the upbeats to the celebration is “Lauda”, played by the LNSO – one of the first heralds of Vasks’s new musical language, written when the composer was not yet middle-aged and was turning towards a more harmonious, more monumental mode of expression. Eva Bindere graces the first half of the concert with Beethoven’s much-loved Violin Concerto. Andris Poga returns to his beloved Shostakovich and conducts the First Symphony, composed at the age of 19 and full of life, high spirits, a touch of mischief and, in places, boundless beauty.