Hamburg Philharmonic State Orchestra

Dmitri Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 12 is the programme highlight in the penultimate concert of the Hamburg Philharmonic State Orchestra’s 2018/19 season. The Socialist Revolution of 1917 had long become part of history when the symphony was premiered in Leningrad in 1961. By then they were living with the consequences, which – for many who had believed in the revolution – represented a betrayal of the dream. In his symphonies, Shostakovich expresses the misery and suffering that had befallen the people of the Soviet Union since 1917. But he also expresses what he, as an individual and an artist, experienced in this new world. The central theme of his music is the unmasking of the villain – against whom he wrathfully sets the power of humanity. Beethoven’s Overture to his opera »Fidelio« – which tells the story of the courageous »Leonore« – is also a moving humanist work, and it is the perfect introduction to Shostakovich’s symphony.