Shostakovich & Brahms – Sir Simon Rattle & Isabelle Faust

Shocking, dissonant, savagely ironic: Shostakovich’s Fourth was a statement of rebellion against Stalin’s dictatorship.

The Programme

It begins with the engines of industry: mechanical marches, pounding brass. An uneasy second movement, and then a nightmarish vision of life in Stalin’s Russia explodes in a frenzied succession of dance themes.

Shostakovich withdrew his Fourth Symphony before its first performance, after hints that he was treading a fine line with the Soviet authorities. It shines on as an extraordinary vision of thwarted humanity.

Brahms wrote his Violin Concerto with, and for, his friend, the virtuosic Hungarian musician Joseph Joachim, and its foot-stomping finale honours Joachim’s heritage.

The Performers

Isabelle Faust has made an exhaustive study of Joseph Joachim’s approach to this concerto, so her stirring performance is reliably authentic. There are thrills and chills aplenty in Sir Simon Rattle and the LSO’s uncompromising approach to Shostakovich’s masterpiece.

‘If they cut off both hands, I will compose music anyway, holding the pen in my teeth’ – Shostakovich

Generously supported by The Huo Family Foundation

Header Image © Mark Allan