The Gohrisch International Shostakovich Days will take place for the 15th time this June. Can there even be a premiere?
In fact – the Gohrisch International Shostakovich Days will take place for the 15th time this year. They were launched in 2010, fifty years after the composer’s first visit to this health resort in Saxon Switzerland. The fact that he composed his 8th String Quartet in C minor, Op. 110, within three days was the reason for the founding of this festival – to this day it is the only one in the world that is dedicated to the music of Dmitri Shostakovich. Seven concerts and a film screening are on the program for the end of June 2024, which was presented yesterday at the start of advance sales.
Of course, reference was also made to the now traditional special concert by the Sächsische Staatskapelle on the evening before the festival, this time on June 26th in the concert hall of the Dresden Cultural Palace. Under the musical direction of Tugan Sokhiev, Shostakovich’s 7th Symphony, the so-called “Leningrader”, will be heard there, an appeal that has remained current and has once again become terribly explosive against the inhumanity and madness of all wars. As is well known, this work, which still gets under your skin, was composed under the impression of the brutal siege of Shostakovich’s hometown by the German Wehrmacht. During this nearly 900-day blockade, more than a million people died of starvation and thousands more died in fighting.
Anders Winter, “Film music King Lear op. 137 (1970)”
Both Tobias Nieder, initiator and artistic director of the Shostakovich Days, and Friedwart Christian Dittmann from the orchestra board of the Staatskapelle, which has been a sponsor of the festival from the beginning, have once again established the connection between Shostakovich’s work and current events. “When you look at Shostakovich’s biography and know the background to many of his works,” says Tobiasprecipitation, “I have to think that it is shocking how similar things are and how many parallels there are.” This makes it all the more important musical work by Dmitri Shostakovich should also be performed in this context. Nevertheless, he points out that “two years ago we probably couldn’t have predicted that this music would be so relevant again.”
The cellist Friedwart Christian Dittmann sees it similarly: “We also experience how much the message that this music radiates, which remains very relevant today, helps us to deal with it artistically.” However, he is very happy with the Shostakovich Festival to have a gem that meets the highest artistic standards and sustainably maintains the work of such an important composer. The orchestra’s sponsorship of the Shostakovich Days should definitely be continued, just as the interest of countless other artists remains unbroken in coming to Gohrisch only for so-called tuxedo money, i.e. without a fee.
Tobias Nieder is particularly pleased about the acceptance of baritone Matthias Goerne, who will be appearing at the festival for the first time. Together with the pianist Alexander Schmalcz, in addition to selected songs by Gustav Mahler, in whose music Shostakovich always saw important inspiration, he will also perform two works by the man who gave him his name. His Suite op. 145 based on poems by Michelangelo Buonarroti and also a romance based on a poem by Yevgeny Yevtushenko, which Shostakovich left behind, will be heard, thus another premiere in the history of the Gohischer Festival. However, this find had to be completed, which was realized by Alexander Raskatov, who, alongside Modest Mussorgsky, will set a reference point to Shostakovich’s music in the upcoming year.
Raskatov, born in 1953, will not only perform several of his compositions, but also as a soloist in Gohrisch, where he will, for example, present his “Dolce far niente” (together with Norbert Anger, cello). Raskatov’s “Black Sun” based on poems by Ossip Mandelstam and the European premiere of his “Bel canto” have been announced as the premiere. Mussorgsky will perform, among other things, “Pictures at an Exhibition” by pianist Martin Helmchen (also appearing in Gohrisch for the first time) and “Songs and Dances of Death”. The latter is also premiered in a version for bass, string orchestra and percussion by Dmitri Jurowski, who will conduct the work in the Staatskapelle’s Sunday matinee. Another premiere in this concert is a concert version created by this conductor with music for Shostakovich’s play “The Bug” (after Vladimir Mayakovsky).
The cellist Marie-Elisabeth Hecker and the mezzo-soprano Ema Nikolovska will also be guests at the International Shostakovich Days Gohrisch for the first time. The Belgian Quatuor Danel, on the other hand, is already one of the festival’s regular guests and will perform the opening concert together with the Fritz Busch Quartet, which consists of musicians from the Staatskapelle, and will take part in another chamber concert. An equally welcome guest is the violinist Gidon Kremer, who this time, together with musicians from Kremerata Baltica, will dedicate an entire chamber evening to Eastern European composers.
Irina Antonovna Shostakovich, the composer’s widow, wants to come to Gohrisch for the fourth time. She accompanied her husband on his second stay in this spa town in 1972 and attended the Shostakovich Days in 2010 and 2018 as a guest of honor. Because of her invaluable contributions to the work and legacy of the composer, to whom she was an enormously important support until the end, Irina Shostakovich, who will celebrate her 90th birthday in November, will receive the Gohrisch International Shostakovich Prize this year. The screening of Elena Yakovich’s documentary »Two. The Story of Shostakovich’s Wife” is dedicated to her.
In addition to the concert introductions, which are popular with audiences, the new festival year will feature Shostakovich podcasts for the first time, an offer that also enables informative walks before and between the individual concerts.
Michael Ernst / About Author
Michael Ernst devotes himself privately, on the radio and in print media to literature, music and theater. He has worked at opera houses and music festivals as well as as a freelance author and has been writing for “Music in Dresden” since 2009.
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2024-03-06 04:56:19
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