| London Philharmonic Orchestra | |
| Krzysztof Penderecki | Conductor |
| Radovan Vlatković | French horn |
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Krzysztof Penderecki joins the Orchestra to conduct the UK premieres of his harp concerto and Adagio for strings.
They also perform his earlier work Threnody and Shostakovich's Sixth Symphony.
After waves of enthusiasm greeted his Fifth Symphony, Dmitri Shostakovich had the dubious honour of being fully 'rehabilitated' into Soviet life by the authorities.
As he focused on film music in 1938, a new symphony began to form in Shostakovich's mind. It started as a vocal hymn to Lenin, but it became a wordless orchestral canvas rocked by imbalance and confusion.
After an opening movement stalked by darkness and anguish, the Symphony gives way to brittle, short-lived jollification, forced and hollow, Shostakovich's acerbic reflection on his political predicament.
*Jointly commissioned by Orchestre de Paris, DR (Danish Broadcasting Corporation), London Philharmonic Orchestra, Orquesta Nacional de España, and Sinfonietta Cracovia.
Royal Festival Hall at 6.15pm. Krzysztof Penderecki and Xavier de Maistre discuss Penderecki's new Harp Concerto. Free.
