LSO with Matsuev: Shostakovich, Prokofiev and Tichchenko, Barbican

For his final season as chief conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra, Valery Gergiev is bringing Moscow to the Barbican. Showcasing both great composers and their lesser-known compatriots, the season promises to be a Russian extravaganza. Piano wunderkind Denis Matsuev, known for his muscular, animated style and technical mastery, will join the LSO as chief soloist. 

The first concert in the series offers music with a distinctly Soviet flavour. Shostakovich’s mighty Symphony No. 10 (1953) is a maelstrom of shock, despair and melancholy. Encapsulating the intense emotions the composer left suppressed under Stalin, it’s also a tribute to murdered artists and an act of homage to his suppressed Western tastes. The piece ends in triumph, celebrating the potential of a post-Stalin Russia.

Boris Tishchenko’s Dante  Symphony No. 1 (1998), written when the composer was just 22, is a seldom-heard riot of colourful orchestration. Heavily influenced by Shostakovich - who took Tishchenko on as a pupil in the 1960s - the piece serves as prologue to a five-part setting of Dante's Commedia.

Heading back to Lenin’s times, Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No. 3 (1921) eerily parallels the struggle between individual and society that the composer would feel acutely under Stalin. Instead of forming the backdrop to the soloist, here the orchestra is combative and overwhelming, at times subduing the piano and erasing it from the piece. A truly revolutionary work, and - with Matsuev's playing - the likely highlight of the evening.

Combining two acknowledged masterpieces with a work that deserves to be better known, and with a sensitive approach to Soviet history, this concert promises to be both thrilling itself and a brilliant start to the LSO’s new season.