Shostakovich. Symphony No. 8 BSO named after. Tchaikovsky Conductor – Vladimir Fedoseev by Dvořák, De (2021/2021), Director musical Vladimir Fedoseyev, Zaryadye Hall, Moscow, Russia

In this this large-scale project, capitol and regional orchestras take part for the first time, the State Academic Symphony Orchestra "Evgeny Svetlanov", Tchaikovsky Symphony Orchestra, National Symphony Orchestra of Russia, Russian National Orchestra, Persymphans, “Solisti Moskvy” are among them. Vladimir Fedoseev, Dmitry Korchak, Vasily Petrenko, Vladimir Spivakov, Mikhail Pletnev, French Pierre Bleuse, Dmitry Liss, Andrey Boreiko, Yuri Bashmet, and Daniil Raiskin are the conductors. On the Soviet culture scene, Dmitry Shostakovich is one of the most significant, if somewhat controversial, figures. Of course the controversy is not about his unique music style, for his oeuvres are within the frameworks of noble classical tradition, but about the composer’s troubled relations with the Soviet powers that be. Some critics believe that he’s “one of the most loyal sons of Soviet Russia”, while others hail him as a real hater of Soviet system. Those tangled and painful relations with the Soviet power did affect the symphonies of the composer. The “grandeur and pain” of his music have such a strong relation with Soviet day-to-day reality that they seem inseparable. One can’t just ignore that dark context the composer was living in. So, if in each and every composer’s opus we can’t help but hear his reaction to this of that event in his country, then Shostakovich oeuvre should be regarded as a kind of “case report” of the Soviet civilization.