A series of concerts for the 115th anniversary of Shostakovich opens at the Zaryadye Hall.

The Zaryadye Hall hosts a series of concerts dedicated to the 115th anniversary of Shostakovich's birth. All 15 symphonies of the composer will be performed from February 17 to December 24, 2021.

The large-scale project brought together the best Russian orchestras: Tchaikovsky Symphony Orchestra,  the State Academic Symphony Orchestra of Russia “Evgeny Svetlanov”, Novosibirsk Philharmonic Orchestra, The National Philharmonic Orchestra of Russia, the Russian National Orchestra, Persimfans, the Moscow Soloists Chamber Orchestra and others under the battons of Vladimir Fedoseev, Vasily Petrenko, Vladimir Spivakov, Mikhail Pletnev, Pierre Blaise (France), Dmitry Liss, Andrey Boreyko, Yuri Bashmet, Daniil Raiskin, Dmitry Korchak.

Symphony No. 11 ("Year 1905"). The four parts of the symphony are based on songs from the times of the first Russian revolution. “I really love this period in the history of our Motherland, which is vividly reflected in the workers' revolutionary songs,” the composer explained. In the symphony, Shostakovich refers to direct quotation. Here you can hear “Boldly, comrades, in leg”, “You fell a victim”, “Varshavyanka”, “Glorious sea, sacred Baikal” and songs less known to the modern listener. Each of the parts has a programmatic subtitle: "Palace Square", "Ninth January", "Eternal Memory", "Nabat". The first performance of the Eleventh Symphony took place in Moscow in October 1957 (conducted by Nathan Rakhlin). Four days later, Evgeny Mravinsky conducted the symphony at the Leningrad Philharmonic. The symphony was received with enthusiasm by the public. For her Shostakovich received the Lenin Prize in 1958.

Before the concert in the Chamber Hall at 19.00 there will be a lecture “Conversation about Shostakovich”.
Joseph Raiskin

Since many things taken for granted from the understanding of Shostakovich's music go away with the generation for which this music was written, a commentary on each concert becomes necessary. For this purpose, the cycle “Conversation about Shostakovich” has been created: an hour before each concert in the Chamber hall of Zaryadye musicians, journalists and musicologists will tell about the composer's symphonies:

Pyotr Aidou and Grigory Krotenko (No. 1 and No. 2)
Julia Bederova (No. 8 and No. 15)
Levon Akopyan (No. 11, No. 13 and No. 14 - about the latter together with Yuri Bashmet)
Dina Kirnarskaya (No. 6 and No. 10)
Varvara Turova and Alexey Kurbatov (No. 5)
Joseph Raiskin (no. 7)
Olga Digonskaya (No. 9 and No. 12)
Andrey Boreiko (no. 4)
Joseph Raiskin and Daniil Raiskin (no. 3)