A bold statement of the Stalin era

The furious and concentrated Scherzo was considered a portrait of Stalin already at the symphony’s first performance. Several statements from Shostakovich confirm the rumour – the movement is like a resumé of an epoch in the shadow of Stalin’s terror. But the symphony also has a introductory elegy of epic proportions and a finale that seems to burst at the seams. The tenth symphony is without doubt one of Shostakovich’s most admired symphonies.

Conductor Klaus Mäkelä, 21 years old showed in his début with the Gothenburg Symphony that he is a force to be reckoned with: “Mäkelä really highlights the different accents, the very contrast between emotional performance and sincerity” wrote Göteborgs Posten in their review.

With his feel for the overall perspective and his interest in Russian music, he was made to take on Shostakovich’s Tenth Symphony, a fascinating and powerful grotesque, containing as many windthrows as it does breathtaking vistas.

Programme
Shostakovich Symphony No 10

Participants
Gothenburg Symphony
Klaus Mäkelä conductor

Recorded for GSOplay 19 January