NSO: Shostakovich 50

National Symphony Orchestra
John Storgårds conductor 
Yukine Kuroki piano 
 
Sibelius The Oceanides 
Rachmaninov Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini 
Victoria Vita Polevá Symphony No. 3, White Interment [Irish Premiere]
Shostakovich Symphony No. 1 

‘Earthy, powerful, passionate’ (New Listener) John Storgårds is renowned for his interpretations of Scandinavian and Russian music.

Rachmaninov’s Paganini Rhapsody is a mesmerising musical kaleidoscope of gleaming styles with 2022 Dublin International Piano Competition winner Yukine Kuroki the virtuosic soloist.

Fifty years after his death, Shostakovich’s First Symphony still bursts with energy and lacerating wit. Ukrainian Victoria Vita Polevá’s Third Symphony is desolate but darkly beautiful, Sibelius’s The Oceanides is a tempestuous tribute to the power of the sea.   

Did you know?

Evoking the ‘nymphs of the waves’ of Greek mythology, Sibelius’s The Oceanides is his most substantial, and dramatic, depiction of the sea.

Rachmaninov wasn’t the only composer to treat Paganini’s Caprice No. 24 to a set of variations; others include Brahms, Witold Lutosławski and Andrew Lloyd Webber.

Victoria Vita Polevá was born in Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, in 1962.

Shostakovich’s First Symphony was composed as a graduation exercise from the Petrograd (now St. Petersburg) Conservatory.

His early career was spent playing piano accompaniment to silent films. 

Listen out for…

The vast storm unleashed at the end of The Oceanides, low trumpets and trombones raging beneath soaring tremolo strings. 

The use of the ‘Dies Irae’ in the seventh Paganini variation and the luxurious love theme introduced by piano and taken up by swooning strings in Variation 18.

The mischievous duet for trumpet and bassoon that opens Shostakovich’s symphony, the solo clarinet’s introduction of the first theme, and solo flute announcing the second.

The drama of the third movement where trumpet fanfares hint at menacing forces and a solo oboe suggests a funeral march.  

The rattling snare drum roles that light the fuse of the finale’s explosive turbulence and thrashing eventually halted by violent fanfares at the symphony’s end.

Presented by NCH