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BBC Symphony Orchestra/Saraste

,Barbican Hall
Karen Cargill on Stairs

Experience Shostakovich’s masterpiece of despair, grotesquery and anger from height of World War II and a brand new work from a compelling new voice from Finland.

On 4 November 1943, a war-fatigued audience in Moscow heard the first performance of Dmitri Shostakovich’s Eighth Symphony. Unlike its predecessor, this was no rallying call-to-arms. It was masterpiece of despair, grotesquery and anger powered forward by music both grief-stricken in stillness and hurtling in paranoia. The piece was banned immediately.

Jukka-Pekka Saraste conducts Shostakovich’s denunciation of the futility of war alongside the lustrous songs by Alma Mahler with mezzo-soprano Karen Cargill.  A UK premiere by Sebastian Fagerlund – a composer shepherding Finnish orchestral music into a thrilling new era – is the climax to a monumental, awe-inspiring trilogy of orchestral works.

Tagged with: Classical music BBC Symphony Orchestra BBC Symphony Orchestra 2019–20 Multibuy More...

End-time to be announced nearer the event.

Programme

Sebastian Fagerlund Water Atlas (UK premiere; BBC co-commission)
Alma Mahler Lieder
Shostakovich Symphony No 8

Performers

BBC Symphony Orchestra
Jukka-Pekka Saraste conductor
Karen Cargill mezzo-soprano

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