CBSO The Spirit of Defiance

Symphony Hall, Birmingham
Broad Street, Birmingham, West Midlands, B1 2EA
United Kingdom
0121 200 2000
symphonyhall@necgroup.co.uk

City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra
Andris Nelsons conductor
Baiba Skride violin



The Soviet censors called it an ‘optimistic tragedy’. Shostakovich simply called it his Tenth Symphony. Dark, impassioned, packed with secret messages and featuring a terrifying musical portrait of Stalin himself, Shostakovich’s Tenth is one of the most powerful of all twentieth-century symphonies. Andris Nelsons’s first Birmingham performance of this modern masterpiece will be keenly awaited – and the young Latvian violinist Baiba Skride is fast becoming a Birmingham favourite too. Sofia Gubaidulina’s Bach-inspired Concerto, written in defiance of Soviet oppression, makes a wonderfully apt prelude to Shostakovich’s epic drama.



Sofia Gubaidulina : Violin Concerto (Offertorium)
Dmitri Shostakovich : Symphony No 10