Music ASO Concert: Dmitri Shostakovich: Symphony #7 ("Leningrad")

Dmitri Shostakovich: Symphony #7 ("Leningrad")
Mark Lane Swanson, Music Director
Stuart McKenzie '16, Assistant Director

On Saturday evening, April 15, at 8 p.m. in Buckley Recital Hall, Amherst College, the Amherst Symphony Orchestra closes its 2016-2017 of "epic" symphonies with a performance of the monumental Seventh Symphony of Dmitri Shostakovich ("Leningrad"). Full details of the orchestra's season may be obtained by consulting http://www.amherstsymphonyorchestra.com.

As a testament to sheer survival and triumph of the human spirit, Shostakovich's Symphony #7 in C major has few equals. Composed at the height of the Nazi siege of Leningrad during the Second World War both within city limits and later in Moscow and Kyubyshev, where the composer had been transferred for his personal safety, the final score was airlifted back to Leningrad and received its premiere by the emaciated surviving members of Leningrad's municipal orchestra. It paints a picture of sheer terror, but also serves as a symbol of Russian resistance and as a requiem for the victims of both the war and Stalinist purges.

Amherst Symphony Orchestra performs in Buckley Recital Hall in the Arms Music Building. Tickets are sold only on the night of the concert, beginning an hour before the performance, in the lobby of Arms. General admission is $10; seniors, children and students, $5; free to Five College students.

For a complete listing of upcoming Amherst College Department of Music events, visit us on the web: www.amherst.edu/academiclife/departments/music/events.