大象传媒

Stuart Flinders presents a concert of Bach, Mendelssohn and Shostakovich given by the Halle, pianist Charles Owen and Sir Mark Elder live from the Bridgewater Hall in Manchester.

A war symphony without triumph - how could this go down well with the Soviet authorities? But the humanist in Shostakovich couldn't write anything other, and he described his Eighth with three simple words: "life is beautiful". And there is beauty, and despair, and anger, and that cryptic, equivocal finale. Shostakovich was a great admirer of JS Bach; fittingly the first two movements in tonight's opening concerto also appear in Cantata 146, 'Wir m眉ssen durch viel Tr眉bsal in das Reich Gottes eingehen' (We must pass through much tribulation to enter God's kingdom). Mendelssohn, too, absorbed the influence of the Baroque master, particularly in his great psalm settings. The manuscript of this 114th Psalm is notated with the acronym H.D.m - German shorthand for "Hilf Du mir", or "Help Thou me".

Bach: Keyboard Concerto No 1 in D minor, BWV 1052
Mendelssohn: Psalm 114, Op 51

INTERVAL

Shostakovich: Symphony No 8 in C minor, Op 65

Charles Owen (piano)
Hall茅 Choir, Youth Choir and Orchestra
Sir Mark Elder (conductor).