On Tour in Hanoi

The Concert

Beethoven’s defiant Symphony No 5 meets the sneering mockery of Shostakovich.

The Music

Fate rules over Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony, a revolutionary work that grows to dramatic, sublime heights from the simple germ of its opening four notes.

Russian soprano Galina Vishnevskaya called Shostakovich’s blistering Symphony No 10 ‘a composer’s testament of misery, forever damning a tyrant.’ Premiered soon after Stalin’s death, the work blends solemnity and mocking sneers that are as powerful as anything the composer wrote.