Shostakovich: Symphony No. 11 in G Minor, Op. 103 "The Year 1905"
3/27/2020, 4 Tracks, 1:06:45
Featuring
John Storgårds
BBC Philharmonic
Dmitri Shostakovich
Did you know?
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Performer Biography
John Storgårds, the conductor, is Chief Guest Conductor of the BBC Philharmonic and also enjoys a dual career as a conductor and violin virtuoso.
Compositional Technique
The symphony incorporates nine revolutionary songs, with the opening musical ideas of 'The Palace Square' being the only ones not derived from these songs.
Compositional Technique
The symphony is sometimes dubbed 'a film-score without the film' due to its cinematic quality, with music that seems to pan like a camera across vast spaces.
Interpretation
This recording uses four church bells, on loan from the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, instead of standard orchestral tubular bells, a choice also heard in the earliest recording of the symphony.
Composition History
Shostakovich's Symphony No. 11, subtitled 'The Year 1905', commemorates the original Bloody Sunday atrocity in pre-communist Russia.
Historical Context
The 1905 Bloody Sunday event involved unarmed workers and their families converging on the Winter Palace in St Petersburg to present a petition to Tsar Nicholas II.
Critical Reception
The Eleventh Symphony was initially received with delight by advocates of Socialist Realism and dismay by its detractors, both in Russia and abroad.
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