Shostakovich symphonies

continued

Valery Gergiev and the Kirov Orchestra will perform five of Shostakovich's symphonies in two concerts at Hill Auditorium in March: the First, Second, and Tenth on Friday, March 17, and the Ninth and Seventh on Sunday, March 19. These are the first two of five Gergiev-Kirov concerts the University Musical Society is presenting over six months, with the remaining ten symphonies scheduled for three concerts that open the 2006-2007 season. Unrelentingly passionate and unerringly dramatic, Valery Gergiev is without doubt Russia's leading conductor. Incredibly virtuosic and unbelievably dedicated, the Kirov Orchestra is Russia's finest orchestra. This is the most impressive and significant series the UMS has presented since the Borodin Quartet performed Shostakovich's complete string quartets here a decade ago.

[Review published March 2006]