Shostakovich’s Tenth

The music

Tormis Overture No. 2 (10’) Listen
Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 5 (Emperor) (38’) Listen
Shostakovich Symphony No. 10 (53’) Listen

The performers

• Paavo Järvi conductor
• Benjamin Grosvenor piano

When words fail, music speaks.

Music can speak even when words are silenced. In the last days of Stalin’s Russia, composers knew better than to voice their fears out loud. But a classical symphony can’t be subversive – can it? Shostakovich’s Tenth is a gripping musical testament to oppression, hiding in plain sight, and in the hands of a conductor like Paavo Järvi, our Chief Conductor & Artistic Advisor Designate, every note will hit home. It makes a formidable counterpart to Beethoven’s mightiest piano concerto, played by one of Britain’s best-loved pianists, and to the powerful Overture No. 2, written in the depths of the Cold War by Järvi’s fellow Estonian, the late Veljo Tormis.