RSNO Spectacular Shostakovich Usher Hall Edinburgh 6th June 2025 Review
RSNO Spectacular Shostakovich at the Usher Hall Edinburgh tonight marked the end of this main 2024/25 concert season with a performance of three works from one of the 20th century’s most important but perhaps least understood composers, Dimitri Shostakovich.
There is always, for me anyhow, that problem of trying to understand just what Shostakovich is saying through his music, there is so often a layer of duality, at times like a game of “What If”. Trying to understand Shostakovich and his music can be a bit like trying to understand someone with dual personalities. The fact is though that we are so often dealing with a personal and musical mask from this hugely gifted composer.
Born in Russia in 1906 (d 1975) Shostakovich spent much of his creative life trying to serve two masters – his own creative instincts and the Russian State, in particular the post-revolutionary state controlled by Joseph Stalin. Shostakovich was, for many years, under such constant surveillance by the authorities that he always had his suitcase packed in in readiness as today might be the day that they came to arrest him. This meant that there was often a need for his work to at least be open to interpretation and not take him into direct confrontation with the authorities.
This evening’s programme of music by the RSNO is an unusual one as it is rare for one to be dedicated to the music of one single composer. What the music performed tonight does show though is a small glimpse of just how diverse Shostakovich’s creativity was.
Shostakovich is, at times, not an easy listen and can for any musician be a challenge as he was often simply so innovative in his music, often using unusual orchestral instrument combinations and taking everyone in unexpected musical direction. His music is spectacular, often filled with beauty and joy whilst at other times becoming sharp and edgy, often sounding more at home as the soundtrack to an Alfred Hitchcock film. Tonight, over three works, the RSNO more than rose to the challenge presented by three very different aspects of Shostakovich’s creativity.
Opening the music for this evening was Festive Overture from 1954. Joseph Stalin may now have been dead (1953), but Shostakovich, like everyone else in Russia, still had to conform to state policy. Remarkably, even accounting for the use in part of some earlier ideas/work, Shostakovich composed this lively work, full of pomp, grandeur and just fun which was requested from him only three days before it was needed for a performance by the Bolshoi Theatre Orchestra.
Following on from this work, Cello Concerto 2 from 1966 is, I think it is fair to say, a very divisive work, almost an acquired taste. You either love this one or not, and with its atmospheric darkness and at times unnerving sounds, it is far removed from what some people expect a cello concerto to sound like. This is the work of Shostakovich at a time in his life when he was now somewhat a little more free from Russian state politics to explore more of his own musical freedoms.
Love it, hate it, the creativeness of this work and the level of technical skill required to perform it is not in doubt. Tonight, Daniel Müller-Schott left no one in this concert hall in any doubt as to why he is in such demand across the world.
The second half of this evening was devoted entirely to Shostakovich Symphony No 11. This work, first performed in Moscow in 1957, is by any standards a remarkable work, and with four movements performed over some 57 minutes it is also a monumental one too.
At one level this is, as required by the Russian authorities, to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Bolshevic Revolution of 1917, but there are many questions to be asked here as Shostakovich’s own father was one of the people petitioning Tsar Nicolas II for social reforms in 1905. At this time over 500 people were killed when the soldiers opened fire on them.
Here, Shostakovich is painting pictures, if not whole cinematic film sequences, in music and from the opening, and at times strangely beautiful music for such a subject matter, first movement “The Parliament Square” to the 4 church bells at the end of the fourth movement, the sheer dynamic range and scope of this work was brought to life by the RSNO this evening. Folk dances to funeral marches, this one has everything and every emotion captured within its musical score.
I am never sure though if Shostakovich is celebrating the revolution or the men, women and children who survived the horrors of Stalin’s authoritarian dictatorship. Perhaps only Shostakovich ever knew the answer to this and if he did, he was telling no one at the time.
Conducting the music for this evening Thomas Søndergård.
Review by Tom King © 2025
www.artsreviewsedinburgh.com
There is always, for me anyhow, that problem of trying to understand just what Shostakovich is saying through his music, there is so often a layer of duality, at times like a game of “What If”. Trying to understand Shostakovich and his music can be a bit like trying to understand someone with dual personalities. The fact is though that we are so often dealing with a personal and musical mask from this hugely gifted composer.
Born in Russia in 1906 (d 1975) Shostakovich spent much of his creative life trying to serve two masters – his own creative instincts and the Russian State, in particular the post-revolutionary state controlled by Joseph Stalin. Shostakovich was, for many years, under such constant surveillance by the authorities that he always had his suitcase packed in in readiness as today might be the day that they came to arrest him. This meant that there was often a need for his work to at least be open to interpretation and not take him into direct confrontation with the authorities.
This evening’s programme of music by the RSNO is an unusual one as it is rare for one to be dedicated to the music of one single composer. What the music performed tonight does show though is a small glimpse of just how diverse Shostakovich’s creativity was.
Shostakovich is, at times, not an easy listen and can for any musician be a challenge as he was often simply so innovative in his music, often using unusual orchestral instrument combinations and taking everyone in unexpected musical direction. His music is spectacular, often filled with beauty and joy whilst at other times becoming sharp and edgy, often sounding more at home as the soundtrack to an Alfred Hitchcock film. Tonight, over three works, the RSNO more than rose to the challenge presented by three very different aspects of Shostakovich’s creativity.
Opening the music for this evening was Festive Overture from 1954. Joseph Stalin may now have been dead (1953), but Shostakovich, like everyone else in Russia, still had to conform to state policy. Remarkably, even accounting for the use in part of some earlier ideas/work, Shostakovich composed this lively work, full of pomp, grandeur and just fun which was requested from him only three days before it was needed for a performance by the Bolshoi Theatre Orchestra.
Following on from this work, Cello Concerto 2 from 1966 is, I think it is fair to say, a very divisive work, almost an acquired taste. You either love this one or not, and with its atmospheric darkness and at times unnerving sounds, it is far removed from what some people expect a cello concerto to sound like. This is the work of Shostakovich at a time in his life when he was now somewhat a little more free from Russian state politics to explore more of his own musical freedoms.
Love it, hate it, the creativeness of this work and the level of technical skill required to perform it is not in doubt. Tonight, Daniel Müller-Schott left no one in this concert hall in any doubt as to why he is in such demand across the world.
The second half of this evening was devoted entirely to Shostakovich Symphony No 11. This work, first performed in Moscow in 1957, is by any standards a remarkable work, and with four movements performed over some 57 minutes it is also a monumental one too.
At one level this is, as required by the Russian authorities, to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Bolshevic Revolution of 1917, but there are many questions to be asked here as Shostakovich’s own father was one of the people petitioning Tsar Nicolas II for social reforms in 1905. At this time over 500 people were killed when the soldiers opened fire on them.
Here, Shostakovich is painting pictures, if not whole cinematic film sequences, in music and from the opening, and at times strangely beautiful music for such a subject matter, first movement “The Parliament Square” to the 4 church bells at the end of the fourth movement, the sheer dynamic range and scope of this work was brought to life by the RSNO this evening. Folk dances to funeral marches, this one has everything and every emotion captured within its musical score.
I am never sure though if Shostakovich is celebrating the revolution or the men, women and children who survived the horrors of Stalin’s authoritarian dictatorship. Perhaps only Shostakovich ever knew the answer to this and if he did, he was telling no one at the time.
Conducting the music for this evening Thomas Søndergård.
Review by Tom King © 2025
www.artsreviewsedinburgh.com
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