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Royal Philharmonic Orchestra

Conductor

Vasily Petrenko

Orchestra

Singer

Roderick Williams

Voice

Shostakovich’s ‘Leningrad’ Symphony

London

United Kingdom

Royal Festival Hall

Shostakovich’s ‘Leningrad’ Symphony: Finlandia, Op. 26 Sibelius (+2 More)

Public

Concert

Finaldia Op.26

Four Walt Whitman Songs (For voice and Orchestra)

Symphony No. 7 in C major, Op. 60

Jnanakumar P

Approved

As Hitler’s armies surrounded the city of Leningrad, and bombs rained down on a starving population, Dmitri Shostakovich sat down and – somehow – composed his Seventh Symphony. Written for massed battalions of musicians, this is music from the front line: a roar of defiance from an unbreakable city. You can hear it this afternoon conducted by Vasily Petrenko, whose recording of the piece was described by one critic as ‘devastating’. It’s a stupendous climax to a concert that’s all about struggle and resistance: whether it’s Sibelius defying Russian imperialism with a mighty hymn to his native Finland or the poet Walt Whitman’s pleas for tolerance, set to music by the exiled Kurt Weill. Singing them today is the fabulous British baritone Roderick Williams: a born communicator at the heart of a truly epic programme.

English

Shostakovich’s ‘Leningrad’ Symphony by Sibelius, Weill, Shostakovich, From (2025/2025), Conductor Vasily Petrenko, Royal Festival Hall, London, United Kingdom

Performance credits (Cast & Crew )

Ensemble

Program, About & Synopsis

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