YGO: Kodály & Shostakovich

The first concert in our 45th Season continues with this year's celebration of the life and compositions of Dmitri Shostakovich with a performance of his 10th Symphony. This is often read as the composer's commentary on the Stalinist era, but there is little corroborating evidence for that. The third movement contains a motif that spells out, in note names, an acknowledgement of the love he felt for one of his students, Elmira Nazirova. Shostakovich's calling card in many of his works is also present here - the so called DSCH motto.

The concert commences with the Hary János Suite by Zoltan Kodály. This is a set of movements that Kodály arranged for orchestra from his Hungarian Folk Opera of the same name. It features the wonderful sounding Cimbalom - a Hungarian version of the hammer dulcimer - played for us in this concert by Chris Bradley of the Orchestra for Opera North. In Hungarian folk tradition, if you sneeze when telling a story, it means the story is true. This work starts with a massive orchestral sneeze, but here Kodály is probably using that tradition in a more ironic sense. Háry János is a veteran soldier sitting in a tavern telling fantastical tales about his heroic exploits: he rescues the Emperor’s daughter, defeats Napoleon single-handedly, and wins untold riches but renounces it all to return to his village!

Cimbalom: Chris Bradley
Conductor: Simon Wright
Leader: Fiona Love

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