Thu 4/6 @ 7:30PM
Fri 4/7 @ 7:30PM
Sat 4/8 @ 8PM
Dmitri Shostakovich (1906-1975), born in St. Petersburg, which became Leningrad, which became St. Petersburg again, led a complicated life. He surged to fame as a teenager with the debut of his Symphony No. 1 in 1926. But he also fell out of favor with the Stalin government, which often conducted purges, sweeping people, including artists, away in the dead of night, never to be seen again. By the mid 1930s, he was subjected to a campaign of denunciation in Pravda, the government-controlled newspaper and many closed to him were arrested or even executed. He composed his Symphony No. 5 in 1937 in the midst of all this; it was a success and seen as a sort of acquiescence to previous anti-Soviet perceptions of the composer.
Despite the political complications of his life and their impact on his work, Shostakovich is now a staple of symphony programming. The Cleveland Orchestra will be playing his Symphony No. 5 this week. The program will open with Leonard Bernstein’s Symphony No. 2 (“The Age of Anxiety”) for orchestra and solo piano, composed in the late 40s, and inspired by a poem by WH. Auden. French pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet will be handling the solo part. Venezuelan conductor Rafael Payare will be leading the orchestra. Get tickets and information here.