Programme Guide

Dmitri Shostakovich’s Twelfth Symphony, completed in 1961, depicts the October Revolution in grand programmatic musical images. It thus reflects a short phase in Shostakovich’s life when, after the death of Stalin and in the hope of a more humane USSR, he was a wholehearted supporter of communism.

In this concert, Gustavo Dudamel confirmed his reputation as one of the most dynamic conductors there is. The Berliner Zeitung, for example, wrote: “When last year the Venezuelan Simón Bolívar Orchestra set the Philharmonie alight, we described its conductor Gustavo Dudamel as a pyromaniac. When Dudamel conducted the Berliner Philharmoniker at the Musikfest, this fire was not tamed – but now it also brings bright, clear light.”