Prom 65 – The Berliner Philharmoniker Plays Schnittke and Shostakovich

Part of the BBC Proms.

In the second of two concerts, the Berliner Philharmoniker and Chief Conductor Kirill Petrenko perform two 20th-century Soviet masterpieces. Originally composed for Yuri Bashmet (whose name is woven through the work as a musical theme) and performed here by the great German violist Tabea Zimmermann, Schnittke’s Viola Concerto brings out the elegiac quality of its solo instrument. The concerto’s charged lament sets the scene for Shostakovich’s 10th Symphony – a musical portrait of Stalin that convulses with horror, terror and brutality. But hope breaks through in the symphony’s blazing close.