A Dark Century

Repertoire

Schoenberg A Survivor from Warsaw (7’) Listen
Weinberg Violin Concerto (26’) Listen
Shostakovich Symphony No. 13 (Babi Yar) (61’) Listen

Performers

• Andrey Boreyko conductor
• Gidon Kremer violin
• Alexander Roslavets narrator/bass*
• London Philharmonic Choir

As part of the LPO’s exploration of memory, Andrey Boreyko conducts three testaments from a dark century.

Three composers cry out in the void. Confronted by unimaginable horror, Schoenberg rediscovered his Jewish roots, and created a musical drama of savage, defiant courage, in tribute to the Holocaust victims. In Soviet Russia, the authorities expected Shostakovich to write a propaganda symphony: but what they got was a searing denunciation of man’s inhumanity to man – more potent, and more urgent than ever in 2024. As part of our exploration of memory, Andrey Boreyko conducts three testaments from a dark century – with the incomparable Gidon Kremer as soloist in the Violin Concerto by Mieczysław Weinberg: composer, survivor and Shostakovich’s most devoted friend.

*Please note the change in artist from originally advertised.