The Hallé - Shostakovich's Fifth Symphony

Another new Hallé visitor, the Singaporean conductor Kahchun Wong, is Chief Conductor of the Nuremberg Symphony Orchestra. With the UK premiere of Sofia Gubaidulinas The Wrath of God, the Hallé follows up celebrating her 90th birthday last season. Dedicated to The Great Beethoven, this brass-dominated work was described enthusiastically by the Wiener Zeitung, as if Gubaidulina has let the trumpets of Jericho sound. In Brittens Serenade, matching tenor and horn was an inspired choice for his spellbinding, elegiac settings of English nocturnal poems. Joining Ian Bostridge to perform them is the Hallés own Laurence Rogers. Shostakovichs Fifth Symphony was, supposedly, A Soviet artists response to just criticism. Now its known that in this Mahlerian symphony, Shostakovich composed a work of defiance so subtle that no-one realised.