As part of Manchester's International Festival, the world-renowned Halle Orchestra gave a concert this evening in its home base, The Bridgewater Hall in Manchester of Shostakovich's Symphony no 7 in C major, 'The Leningrad'.
The symphony is so monikered because Shostakovich completed composition of the work during the infamous 'Siege of Leningrad' by the Germans during WW2. A lot of the melodies and themes of the work were already 'in the bag' prior to this, but when the siege happened, and with Shostakovich living in the city at the time, a renewed sense of purpose and need to compose hit him, and he began scribbling very quickly to complete this work. The Soviets managed to evict him from Leningrad, to a place of safety east of Moscow, but the world premiere of the symphony was given in the ravaged city during the seige by the only musicians still there. Cold, weak, emaciated and hungry, it was great testament to the spirit of the city and their understanding of the sentiment behind the composition that drove them to perform it. The symphony was played on loud speakers all across the city and was a cry of defiance to the German troops positioned around the city who could also hear the citizens of Leningrad, a city that should have capitulated easily many months ago, defiantly playing a concert of what must have seemed at the time like hugely antagonistic, patriotic, pro-Communist music.
The Leningrad Symphony is Shostakovich's longest and calls for over 100 musicians. It is a work of unbelievable complexity, and yet the listener shouldn't hear the technique, just the emotion it conveys. To paraphrase Sir Mark Elder's thoughts during the short talk which preceded this work, the the first movement signals the arrival of something evil, this could easily be interpreted as the Nazis, however, it could equally be Stalin and all that Stalin's government and repression stood for. The second movement is retrospective and is an idyll of peasants in the field using fragments of Klezmer music. Of the third movement Elder said the phrase, 'limitless inspiration', and as the third movement and the final movement are played without a break, this gives way to 'anticipation'. This anticipation is, at first hopeful and prosaic, however it soon becomes clear, with the return of the beat and melody of the first movement, that something terrible is just over the horizon. It is a warning, a watch-cry to all to beware of state control - either through Communism or Nazism. Ironically Shostakovich started and ended the work in C major, a simple and pure sounding key, a bright sounded, optinistic tone, but yet in reality, this was not a celebration of Russian victory; far from it, for Shostakovich this was telling the Russian people that yes, a change is coming, but beware, for under Stalin, nothing is ever all right in Russia!
Unfortunatley Sir Mark Elder had had an operation and had been advised not to conduct or to move his shoulder too much for a few weeks and so was unable to conduct the work this evening. We need not have worried though, as stepping into the breech was the Halle Orchestra's Assistant condutor, Jonathon Heyward, and this brought perhaps a freshness and newness onto the work which might not have been so evident under Elder. Whatever the case, the orchestra sounded simply magnificent, and this hugely cinematic / theatrical piece of 'anti-pomp' came alive and moved each and every one of us, perhaps all in differing ways, but we all went home moved by the sentiment and conditions of the writing, as well as the majesty and emotive nature of the music.
Prior to the playing of the symphony, there was a short talk conducted by a young female (name unknown) who chaired a short discussion with Sir Mark Elder, Mark Bell (the creative director of MIF), and Johan Simons (a Dutch actor and theatre director, currently the Artistic Director of the Bochum Schauspielhaus). They were discussing plans for a collaborative work using another work by Shostakovich, his 4th symphony, with 'at least 11 actors' and inspirations from the text of a communist novel to stage a world premiere production in the new theatre and performance space being built currently in Manchester (on the site of the old Granada ITV studios) which will be known as The Factory, and be the permanent year-round home of Manchester International Festival. Most unfortunately, either due to technical difficulties with the mics or other unknown reasons, Sir Mark Elder was the only one of the four I was able to hear clearly and precisely the whole time. His diction superb and his lovely little witticisms perfectly timed. Sadly the other three were out of focus audially, and so missed much of what this talk was about, but hope I have the salient points correct as mentioned above.
Reviewer - Matthew Dougall
on - 11/7/19
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