Anniversaries for various composers come and go, but rarely does a composer’s commemoration seem as poignant as this year’s 50th anniversary of the death of Dmitri Shostakovich. And who better to conduct his Leningrad Symphony with Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw Orchestra, than Semyon Bychkov. A Leningrad-born conductor who, like the composer himself, struggled to live within the confines of an oppressive Russian dictatorship, and fled his homeland in 1974, the year before Shostakovich’s death.
The programme
The history
Written both before, and during the 1941 siege of Leningrad when close to one million people died of cold at starvation at the hands of the German forces, the Seventh Symphony in C major is often seen as a symbol of resistance, and a musical testament to the 27 million Russians who died in World War II. Never more so than in the defiant and historic performance in Leningrad on 9th August 1942 given by the hastily reformed Leningrad Radio Orchestra when Shostakovich’s music blasted through the city. Seen as an embodiment of the Russian fighting spirit, it helped prove to the outside world that perhaps not all Russians were godless barbarians.
Unlike some other interpretations, tonight’s performance was a message of hope.
The symphony
All started peacefully, a throaty trumpet and the flute’s inner calm masked impending turmoil. Only the plaintive piccolo hinted at bleakness ahead. Hope remained. However, with the snare drum and the violin’s ominous col legno ‘war’ theme (a quote from Hitler’s favourite operetta, Franz Lehar’s The Merry Widow) everything changed. Increasingly sardonic harmony urged the volume up a notch as first the trumpets and then the clarinets took the mantle.
This looming army was harsh and tightly controlled. No hyperbole, just sheer brutality marching relentlessly forward. No invader dare break the RCO brass’ defensive line. All immaculately controlled by Bychkov before finally, with the trumpet’s top E, all angst ebbed away. In the embers, a fallen city and what Shostakovich described as “a funeral march … a mother’s tears or even the feeling that the sorrow is too great; that there are no more tears left”.
Moving into the Moderato, a fairytale unfolded. An evil Rumpelstiltskin-like bass clarinet vied with the equally ominous tuba and double basses. Who could be the most evil? A piercing Eb clarinet and the alto flute, with a touch of the orient, completed the storytelling.
The threat still loomed large in the Adagio, but the harp, like a voice from heaven, paved the way for reconciliation. How raw and relevant Shostakovich’s music felt in today’s world, a world not dissimilar to the one eighty years ago when the symphony was received as a defiant rallying call. A song of resistance against not just the German occupying forces, but as later revealed in the 1979 book Testimony, a covert denunciation of Stalin’s crimes against his own people.
A heartwarming glow from violas pre-empted a moment of magic. Shostakovich’s language attempted to make sense of all the horrors which have befallen so many over the years, before reminding us for the last time, with that pesky snare drum, that the threat was going nowhere.
Power unleashed
The entire brass now in octaves became, in the words of Marin Alsop, “the voice of the people”. Incredibly harsh military sounds continued as the might of the RCO brass were unleashed. Incredibly exciting, especially when the timpani obliterated all in sight.
A sharp focus on detail set this performance apart: exaggerated swells at the ends of phrases; harsh, metallic, double bass slap pizzicatos; immensely disciplined strings with their tightly dotted rhythms like soldier’s boots clicking together in the snow; and even varied trumpet mutes reflecting both intimacy and harsh brutality.
Did the RCO musicians play as Bychkov wanted? Did they “crawl between the notes” and “play as if their lives depended on it” as suggested in a pre-concert interview? The rapturous applause and the rare display of respect they bestowed upon their conductor, would seem to suggest they did.
Further listening
Two of my favourite recordings of Shostakovich’s 7th Symphony
Watch two videos from Boosey and Hawkes where conductors go Beyond the Baton and share their insight into Shostakovich’s world
Read more from Clare
This concert was reviewed at the Concertgebouw, Amsterdam on Thursday 24th April, 2025
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