Prom 18 – Shostakovich’s Fifth Symphony

Part of the BBC Proms.

Like the slow movements of his towering symphonies, the richly passionate Adagio from Bruckner’s String Quintet – his only mature piece of chamber music – shimmers with a mystical quality. It finds a counterpart in the deeply poignant slow movement of Shostakovich’s Fifth Symphony – with which the composer managed to appease the Soviet censors while also expressing the horrors of his time. This contrasts with the more joyful rhythms of Canadian composer Nicole Lizée’s new percussion concerto. Award-winning percussionist Colin Currie is the soloist in the European premiere of a work written specially for him.