Shostakovich Festival in Gohrisch with record results

The small community of Gohrisch in Saxon Switzerland has defended its reputation as a good address for the great music world: more than 3,500 spectators from near and far flocked to the idyllically situated village for the 15th edition of the International Shostakovich Days to honor the work of composer Dmitri Shostakovich (1906-1975) and learn about his role models and successors. Tobias Niederschlag, Artistic Director of the festival, was extremely satisfied with the response and spoke of a record result on Sunday.

After the "Prelude" by the Staatskapelle Dresden on Wednesday with Vitali Alekseenok on the podium and a performance of Shostakovich's "Leningrad Symphony" in Dresden's Kulturpalast, the festival offered seven concerts and a film screening from Thursday in Gohrisch. Several stars of the music scene traveled to Gohrisch for the event, including violinist Gidon Kremer, cellist Marie-Elisabeth Hecker, pianist Martin Helmchen and singer Matthias Goerne. The audience was not deterred by the midsummer temperatures and flocked in droves to the Gohrisch concert barn.

The finale on Sunday was no different. In the morning, there was a summit meeting of the composers who set the tone this year in Gohrisch - alongside Shostakovich, Modest Mussorgsky (1839-1881) and Alexander Raskatov, born in 1953, who himself had traveled to Saxon Switzerland. His "Bel canto" for viola, string orchestra and temple gong was followed by the world premiere of Mussorgsky's "Songs and Dances of Death" in an arrangement for bass, string orchestra and percussion. The Greek composer Alexandros Stavrakakis caused a cheer with his voice and soulful interpretation.

In the second part, Shostakovich's "Concertino op. 94" in an arrangement for piano and chamber orchestra by and with pianist Julia Zilberquit was followed by his music to the play "The Bug" by Vladimir Mayakovsky. The magical comedy tells the story of a former revolutionary who has mutated into a philistine. A fire breaks out at his wedding. Just like a bug in his clothes, the man freezes to death in the freezing cold during the fire-fighting work and only thaws out decades later - as a relic of a society that has since disappeared, he ends up in a zoo. There was thunderous applause for this too.

Shostakovich was a guest in Gohrisch twice - in a guest house run by the GDR government. He composed his 8th String Quartet here in the summer of 1960. It is considered one of the central chamber music works of the 20th century and, like his 10th Symphony, a personal reckoning with Stalin.

Shostakovich is one of the most famous composers of the 20th century. He left behind an extensive and diverse oeuvre with 15 symphonies, instrumental concertos, operas, film music, vocal works, piano and chamber music. His oeuvre remains an integral part of the worldwide concert scene to this day.