Sergei Rachmaninov (1873 – 1943)
Piano Concert No 2

Dmitri Shostakovich (1906 – 1975)
Symphony No 8

It is hard to imagine two more contrastive works from the canon of Russian symphonies than the pair selected by Juraj Valcuha for his symphony concert with the Deutsche Oper Berlin. On the one hand we are presented with Sergei Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 2, whose interplay of deeply melancholic melodiousness and elegant virtuosity was to become characteristic of Rachmaninoff’s sound and which, following its premiere in 1900, was enthusiastically received around the world. On the other we have Dmitri Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 8 (1943), a work whose unrelenting brusqueness and deep gloom directly mirror the mood engendered by the Second World War.