The Concertgebouworkest performs Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 10 under the direction of Andris Nelsons. You can watch the performance with or without commentary by Nick Woud and Herman Rieken.
With his Symphony No. 10, Dmitri Shostakovich emerged from a particularly trying time. It was the first work that Shostakovich composed after the death of his tormentor Joseph Stalin on 5 March 1953. The Tenth Symphony allegedly is about ‘Stalin and the years of Stalin’s regime’. The second movement is intended as a musical portrait of Stalin; it is not a flattering one, with a continuous fortissimo thundering like a steamroller through the entire movement – only four minutes in length. You can watch the performance of Shostakovich’s Tenth Symphony with or without commentary by the musicians Nick Woud and Herman Rieken.
Andris Nelsons made his debut with the Concertgebouworkest in 2008 and now conducts the orchestra regularly. Having conducted the North West German Philharmonic, the Latvian National Opera and the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Andris Nelsons currently is music director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra and the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra.