Philharmonia Orchestra

Vladimir Ashkenazy conductor
Nobuyuki Tsujii piano
Sergei Aleksashkin bass
Men of Brighton Festival Chorus

Prokofiev Piano Concerto No. 3 in C major, Op. 26
Shostakovich Symphony No. 13, ‘Babi Yar’

The Philharmonia’s Conductor Laureate takes the helm for this powerful all-Russian programme.

One should not be deprived of conscience. To lose conscience is to lose everything.’ So said Shostakovich in defence of dissident poet Yvgeny Yevtushenko whose poem Babi Yar – about a brutal Nazi massacre of Russian Jews in 1941 – would become the bedrock of the composer’s 13th Symphony. Effectively banned for its exposé of endemic anti-Semitism and other Soviet abuses, fifty years on this multi-movement choral symphony resonates with the same seismic force that made it such a thorn in Kruschev’s side. The concert opens with Prokofiev’s Third Piano Concerto, performed by Japanese pianist Nobuyuki Tsujii.