Music ASO Welcomes the Class of ’23: Music of Dmitri Shostakovich

The Amherst Symphony Orchestra (ASO), directed by Mark Lane Swanson, opens its 2019-2020 season of Russian masterworks at its annual concert welcoming the incoming class at Amherst College. Tickets will be available at the door beginning at 7 p.m.

The hour-long concert, devoted to the music of Dmitri Shostakovich, opens with his Festive Overture, a boisterous piece d'occasion composed to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the October Revolution. It also features his powerful and moving Fifth Symphony-- his life-or-death response to Stalin’s scathing critique of his work as “muddle instead of music.” Undoubtedly Shostakovich’s greatest masterpiece, the symphony may appear on the surface to project Soviet triumphalism, but the Russian people could discern its deeper meaning as an indictment of internal repression and Stalin’s inhumane political purges.

For information on ticketing and directions to the concert, please visit https://www.amherstsymphonyorchestra.com/musicians.

Tickets may be purchased only at the door. Prices are $10 for the general public; $5 for senior citizens, students with ID and children under 12; and free to Amherst and all Five College students with ID.

Interested in learning more about this concert?

Join the Center for Russian Culture throughout the 2019-20 season of AMHERST SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA, “A RUSSIAN FESTIVAL,” for pre-concert round-tables at the Center for Russian Culture featuring scholars of music and Russian cultural history. The first of these, "Shostakovich in Context," takes place Friday, Sept. 27, at 4 p.m., and is presented by Professors Klára Móricz (music) and Boris Wolfson (Russian) in the Amherst Center for Russian Culture (202 Webster Hall, Amherst College) and is FREE and open to the public.