Interview
Sofia Gubaidulina in conversation with Margarete Zander Gustavo Dudamel conducts Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 12
It is rare to experience such a concentration of percussion instruments as there were in this concert with Gustavo Dudamel. In Sofia Gubaidulina’s Glorious Percussion, no less than five percussionists demonstrate the multifaceted sounds and effects their instruments can produce. Dmitri Shostakovich’s 12th Symphony is no less energetic – for the composer an unusually enthusiastic work which was played here by the Berliner Philharmoniker for the very first time.
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.”
Berliner Philharmoniker
Gustavo Dudamel
Glorious Percussion
© 2009 Berlin Phil Media GmbH
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