The Hallé Shostakovich's Fifth Symphony
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- What you'll hear
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Pain. Anger. Music to chill you to your core.
Who’s on stage
The Hallé are regular guests here at The Glasshouse but it’s a first visit for their new Principal Conductor Kachun Wong. Let’s give him a proper North East welcome.
What they’re playing
The Halle’s rich symphonic sound is perfect for the two Russian masterpieces on the bill: Shostakovich’s Fifth Symphony and Rachmaninov’s Third Piano Concerto.
Need to know
Price: £21 – £49
Discounts: save if you’re under 17, aged 18 – 30, a classical first timer, a group of 10 or more people. Check the details.
Running time: 1 hour 40 minutes, including a 20 minute interval.
Age: under 14s must be accompanied by an adult.
What you'll hear
Sergei Rachmaninov Piano Concerto No. 3 (39′)
Dmitri Shostakovich Symphony No. 5 (44′)
Who's playing
Kahchun Wong conductor
Boris Giltburg piano
The Hallé
What's happening in the music?
A lot of the time we turn to classical music for relaxation, for mindfulness or for something to study to. If you were to unknowingly pop on Shostakovich’s Fifth Symphony for any of those purposes you’d be in for a shock though. This is relentless, dark music about pain, oppression, anger and steadfastness, occasionally lightened by the glimmer of hope. That’s not to say it’s not enjoyable – it’s a bumpy, unpredictable ride, but it’s music with a serious message. Tonight it’s accompanied by another Russian masterpiece, Rachmaninov’s epic Third Piano Concerto. Made famous by the film Shine, it’s bigger, longer, and more technically challenging than anything the composer had written before, and some of the most electrifying music around for piano and orchestra.
Laughing when you’re crying
In 1936, the year before the Fifth Symphony was premiered, Stalin attended a performance of Shostakovich’s Opera, Lady Macbeth. Finding it a little short on Soviet patriotism he wasn’t best pleased with it, and the work was subsequently denounced in the state newspaper, Pravda as “Muddle instead of Music”. It wasn’t heard again in the USSR for 30 years. A lot rested on the follow up, the Fifth Symphony. It could mean the difference between success and the gulag. Shostakovich managed to play an amazing slight of hand with the piece – keeping officials happy with lots of tunes, while allowing the public to hear it as an expression of pain and suffering.
Take a listen
Here’s tonight’s soloist Boris Giltburg playing Rachmaninov’s Third Piano Concerto at the finals of the Queen Elisabeth Competition in 2013. It’s going to sound even better live.
