Looking ahead to next season, 25 September 2006 marks
the hundredth anniversary of the birth of Russian
musical giant Dmitri Shostakovich. International
commemorations have been planned, but this season,
birthday festivities in North America have already
begun.
The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center begins its
celebration this fall, as it offers up an October
weekend of Shostakovich sonatas, duets, trios, quintets
and his CONCERTO NO. 1 FOR PIANO, TRUMPET AND STRINGS
at Alice Tully Hall.
Next spring, the Seattle Symphony presents its
"Shostakovich Uncovered II" festival with concerts
scheduled from March through April. Highlights of the
series are: Gerard Schwarz conducts SYMPHONY NO. 5 in a
combined-concert with the visiting Russian National
Orchestra, and Mstislav Rostropovich directs a program
of the composer’s works paired with the music of his
countryman Sergei Prokofiev.
March 2006 brings more Shostakovich to the East and
West Coasts. Valery Gergiev offers a New York City
first through Lincoln Center’s "Great Performers"
series. Gergiev leads the Kirov Orchestra of the
Mariinsky Theatre and the Rotterdam Philharmonic in the
series "A Creative Path" — the beginning of a
two-season complete survey of Shostakovich’s 15
symphonies. At the San Francisco Symphony, Rostropovich
conducts its series devoted to the composer.
In April and May, "Great Performers" audiences will
also be treated to all 15 Shostakovich string quartets
played by the Emerson String Quartet, with five
concerts at Alice Tully Hall. And deep in the heart of
Texas, the Da Camera of Houston rounds out its season
with a tribute to one of the most influential and
popular composers of the 20th century.
Recent Shostakovich activities include: the Bolshoi
Ballet’s US premiere of THE BRIGHT STREAM at Lincoln
Center, and a new catalogue of works published by
International Muzikverlage Hans Sikorski.
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US Premiere
2121/3221/timp.perc.glock.xyl/cel.pf/str
Alexei Ratmansky, choreographer
Bolshoi Ballet/Klinichev
25 July 2005; Lincoln Center, New York City
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Review
Dmitri Shostakovich
THE BRIGHT STREAM
(The Limpid Stream)
Comedy-ballet in Three Acts
THE BRIGHT STREAM...was first done in 1935, to a
brightly appealing score by Shostakovich and
choreography by Fyodor Lopukhov, then a famous,
progressive figure in Russian ballet. But Pravda,
meaning Stalin, hated it; it disappeared from the
stage, and it was revived only in 2003 by Alexei
Ratmansky, the Bolshoi’s new artistic director.
...it sounds deft and appealing....The plot is a
farrago of intrigues among the collective farm workers
and a troupe of visiting artists sent to entertain
them, complete with disguises in drag and loads of
character dances....it’s all affectionately
satirical...full of deft subtleties of color and
phrasing...
— John Rockwell, THE NEW YORK TIMES
