Musikfest Berlin: London Symphony Orchestra

O wydarzeniu

Berlin's new concert season starts with a big orchestral bang: from September 3rd to 21st the "musikfest berlin 09" takes place!

The London Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Valery Gergiev plays works by Tistschenko and Shostakovich.

Strange shift in time. In 1957, the Soviet Union celebrated the 40th anniversary of the October Revolution. Yet Shostakovich wrote a symphony about the February Revolution of 1905: the rising of the people against all kinds of autocracy. Workers’ and rebels’ songs steer the course of the work like trail blazers; being ultimately carried away by it. In Russian culture there is the long tradition of critical investigation of the present, set against the backdrop of history. The Eleventh »refers to the present of 1957, even though I have named it The year 1905. It deals with a people having lost its belief, because the chalice of misdeeds had overflowed.« (D. S.)

Shostakovich valued his student Boris Tishchenko on account of his musical talent, and for that quiet defiance which does not allow artistic thought and action to be imposed upon by the vagaries of politics. Tishchenko composed his solo concertos like little dramas. For the cello concertos he provided for an unusual instrumentation. Shostakovich transcribed the first concerto for symphony orchestra, thereby paving its way into the concert halls.

 


London Symphony Orchestra
Tim Hugh violoncello
Valery Gergiev conductor