CANCELLED: Symphoniker Hamburg / Andris Poga

A broad and radiant C major ushers in the famous »Meistersinger« Overture. And even in concert performance, one can literally see the characters from Richard Wagner’s only big »comic« opera on stage. Two early masterpieces by the two most famous Russian composers of the 20th century contrast clearly with the Wagner: Sergei Prokofiev’s First Violin Concerto was written when the 25-year-old was in a phase of enthusiasm for classicistic simplicity and clear forms. His rival Dmitri Shostakovich was even younger, namely 19, when he put down his First Symphony on paper as the entry for his finals at the Leningrad Conservatoire. The work begins with a witty dialogue between the trumpet and the bassoon – but even in his first essay in the symphonic genre, the composer’s gloomy mood is already evident: Shostakovich suffered his entire life under the Stalin dictatorship.