Elsa Barraine (1910–1999) Symphony Nr. 2 (1938)
Erich Wolfgang Korngold (1897–1957) Violin Concerto in D Major op. 35
Dmitri Shostakovich (1906–1975) Symphony Nr. 5 in A minor op. 47
Elias David Moncado violin
Thomas Guggeis conductor
10am pre-concert talk in main auditorium by Andreas Bomba
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A year of political and musical upheaval. The title of French composer Elsa Barraine's 2nd symphony is the Russian word for »war«, a work commissioned by the French Ministry for Culture in 1938. After the annexation of Austria and the Munich Agreement war was in the air, and subsequent events proved her right. But the work hints at a distant future. The war in the 1st movement is followed by a funeral march in the 2nd before the music returns to life in the finale.
Stalinist terror was raging in the Soviet Union while Shostakovich was composing his 5th Symphony. Scathing criticism of his operas made Shostakovich fear for his life, so he tried to exonerate himself with his 5th Symphony, which was accepted by the powers that be as a suitable ‘response to justified criticism’. He later said that nobody had understood the work, you'd have to be an idiot not to hear that the cheers were orchestrated.
Korngold followed events in Europe that year from Hollywood, and decided not to go home but concentrate on his Oscar winning film music, a motive from one of them was the starting point for his famous violin concerto that combines Hollywood with German / Austrian romantic music.
