Shostakovich x Beethoven

In communist Russia, Soviet officials called it an ‘optimistic tragedy’. Shostakovich simply called it his Tenth Symphony. Dark, tense, packed with secret messages and featuring at its centre a terrifying scherzo that might or might not be musical portrait of Stalin himself. Shostakovich’s Tenth is one of the greatest of all 20th-century symphonies, and few living conductors understand it more intimately than RPO Music Director Vasily Petrenko. ‘Shattering’ and ‘thrilling’ were just two of the words that critics used to describe his recording of the Tenth Symphony.

Today, he probes its secrets once again, paired with a haunting Russian ballad for baritone and orchestra from Galina Ustvolskaya, a composition pupil of Shostakovich. At the centre, we are joined by one of Britain’s best-loved pianists – Benjamin Grosvenor – in a very different masterpiece: the young Beethoven’s exuberant First Piano Concerto.