Greetings Madison Theatre fans!
On Sunday February 8, we will be hosting a night of Russian Classics. Along with the South Shore Symphony, we will also be having guest conductor David LaMarche, violinist Robin Zeh, and harpist Barbara Allen.
The program includes Shostakovich’s Fifth Symphony, selections from Tchaikovsky’s Sleeping Beauty Suite (Op. 66) and selections from the Swan Lake Suite (Op. 20).
Shostakovich composed his fifth symphony in 1937, and it was premiered later in the same year by the Leningrad Philharmonic Orchestra. During this time, Stalin was at the height of his reign in the Soviet Union. Shostakovich lived in a repressive and restrictive society, where people would be taken at night, exiled or killed. Shostakovich’s fifth symphony was an expression of his struggle and challenge, as an artist living in the Soviet Union. He called his fifth symphony “a response to my critics”.
Tchaikovsky’s Sleeping Beauty Suite was first premiered in 1890 in the Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg, Russia. Today, it is classic repertoire in the ballet world.
Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake Suite was composed between 1875-6, and premiered in 1877 in Moscow, Russia. It was not received well, initially. But after the revival of the work in 1895, it gained its standing in the classic repertoire in the ballet world.
Get your tickets today!