Visting Orchestras

London Symphony Orchestra / Valery Gergiev

Past Dates

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.

Concert Programme

Boris Tistschenko [born 1939]
Concerto for violoncello and orchestra No. 1 op. 23 [1963]
for winds, percussion, reed organ and strings
arranged by Dmitri Shostakovich [1969]

Dmitri Shostakovich [1906–1975]
Symphony No. 11 G minor op. 103 The Year 1905 [1956–57]
Palace Square Adagio
Ninth of January Allegro
Eternal Memory Adagio
Tocsin Allegro ma non troppo


Tim Hugh cello

London Symphony Orchestra
Valery Gergiev conductor