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Shostakovich conducts Shostakovich with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
9 March 2010
The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra will be embarking on a major tour around the UK in March and April in a unique series of concerts featuring the music of the great Russian composer Dmitri Shostakovich, conducted by his son Maxim.
The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra will be embarking on a major tour around the UK in March and April in a unique series of concerts featuring the music of the great Russian composer Dmitri Shostakovich, conducted by his son Maxim.
Maxim Shostakovich is well-placed to provide a particular insight into his father’s music. A respected conductor in his own right, he was Principal Conductor and Artistic Director of the USSR Radio and Television Symphony Orchestra, with whom he conducted the world première of his father’s Symphony No.15 in 1971. He has worked with renowned orchestras around the world including those of Philadelphia and Zürich and, in the UK, the Royal Philharmonic, City of Birmingham Symphony, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic and London Symphony orchestras, as well as conducting his father’s work at English National Opera.
‘When Shostakovich conducts Shostakovich…it's hard to top’ - New York Times
One of the main works featured in the concert tour will be Dmitri Shostakovich’s Piano Concerto No.2. Maxim gave the world première performance of this concerto as a young pianist, after his father wrote it on the occasion of his nineteenth birthday. The concerts will also feature a wide range of pieces by Shostakovich, from the rollicking Festive Overture to the dramatic Symphony No.5, widely believed to be the composer’s reaction against Russian Communism.
In a parallel to the first performance of the Shostakovich Piano Concerto, these concerts will once again star a talented young Russian pianist, this time in the form of twenty-two-year-old Natasha Paremski. The top prize-winner at the 2007 Prix de Montblanc, she has already performed with many of the world’s leading orchestras including the San Francisco Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Berlin Symphony and Royal Scottish National orchestras. Her performance interests extend out of the traditional concert hall to contemporary classical music and appearances on television documentaries on the life and works of Tchaikovsky and Robert and Clara Schumann.
The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra already offers an extensive regional touring programme via its established residencies but looks forward to extending its reach to yet more venues outside the capital. The unique pairing of father and son at venues rarely visited by a London orchestra means that these concerts will be among the highlights of the 2010 cultural calendar.
Concert dates
• Wednesday 17th March, Butterworth Hall, Warwick
• Friday 9th April, Cadogan Hall, London
• Sunday 11th April, Royal & Derngate, Northampton
• Thursday 15th April, The Hexagon, Reading
• Friday 16th April, City Hall, Sheffield
• Saturday 17th April, Town Hall, Leeds
Maxim Shostakovich is well-placed to provide a particular insight into his father’s music. A respected conductor in his own right, he was Principal Conductor and Artistic Director of the USSR Radio and Television Symphony Orchestra, with whom he conducted the world première of his father’s Symphony No.15 in 1971. He has worked with renowned orchestras around the world including those of Philadelphia and Zürich and, in the UK, the Royal Philharmonic, City of Birmingham Symphony, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic and London Symphony orchestras, as well as conducting his father’s work at English National Opera.
‘When Shostakovich conducts Shostakovich…it's hard to top’ - New York Times
One of the main works featured in the concert tour will be Dmitri Shostakovich’s Piano Concerto No.2. Maxim gave the world première performance of this concerto as a young pianist, after his father wrote it on the occasion of his nineteenth birthday. The concerts will also feature a wide range of pieces by Shostakovich, from the rollicking Festive Overture to the dramatic Symphony No.5, widely believed to be the composer’s reaction against Russian Communism.
In a parallel to the first performance of the Shostakovich Piano Concerto, these concerts will once again star a talented young Russian pianist, this time in the form of twenty-two-year-old Natasha Paremski. The top prize-winner at the 2007 Prix de Montblanc, she has already performed with many of the world’s leading orchestras including the San Francisco Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Berlin Symphony and Royal Scottish National orchestras. Her performance interests extend out of the traditional concert hall to contemporary classical music and appearances on television documentaries on the life and works of Tchaikovsky and Robert and Clara Schumann.
The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra already offers an extensive regional touring programme via its established residencies but looks forward to extending its reach to yet more venues outside the capital. The unique pairing of father and son at venues rarely visited by a London orchestra means that these concerts will be among the highlights of the 2010 cultural calendar.
Concert dates
• Wednesday 17th March, Butterworth Hall, Warwick
• Friday 9th April, Cadogan Hall, London
• Sunday 11th April, Royal & Derngate, Northampton
• Thursday 15th April, The Hexagon, Reading
• Friday 16th April, City Hall, Sheffield
• Saturday 17th April, Town Hall, Leeds
