United Kingdom Hass, Beethoven, Shostakovich: Jonathan Biss (piano), BBC Symphony Orchestra / Jakub Hrůša (conductor). Barbican Hall, London, 31.1.2025. (KMcD)

Pavel Haas – Scherzo Triste, Op.5
Beethoven – Piano Concerto No.2
Shostakovich – Symphony No.11, ‘The Year 1905’
From the first hushed notes to the final, thunderous climax, Friday night’s concert at the Barbican was an evening of music that commanded attention and left the audience spellbound. Under the inspired baton of Jakub Hrůša, the BBC Symphony Orchestra delivered an evening of intensity, precision, and emotional weight, with pianist Jonathan Biss offering a performance of persuasive elegance and gripping power. The highlight of the evening, though, was a truly searing account of Shostakovich’s Symphony No.11 – perhaps the most blistering account of any of his symphonies I have ever experienced in a concert hall.
The concert opened with Pavel Haas’s Scherzo Triste, a piece that set the tone for the evening’s powerful musical journey. Hrůša and the BBC SO gave a taut, highly charged performance of this rarely heard work, capturing its shifting moods of agitation and melancholy with remarkable precision. The piece’s unsettling harmonic progressions and rhythmic unpredictability made for an absorbing and thought-provoking concert opener – a work inspired by both Janáček and Debussy yet never feeling derivative of either composer.
Jonathan Biss’s approach to Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No.2 was commanding, his muscular attack lending urgency and fire to the opening movement. His cadenza was a masterclass in control, beautifully shaped and never descending into mere display. Technically assured throughout, he brought clarity and weight to every phrase. If I had one reservation, it would be that the second movement felt slightly on the slow side. That said, the balance between soloist and orchestra was impeccably handled, and Hrůša ensured that the BBC SO provided loving support, responding to Biss’s phrasing with sensitivity and precision. Biss also imbued his encore of Schubert’s D-flat major Impromptu, Op.90 D899, with similar insightful phrasing.
But if the first half was marked by elegance and refinement, the second half was something altogether different – an electrifying, full-throttle ride through Shostakovich’s Symphony No.11. From the opening moments of the first movement, The Palace Square, where the orchestra barely whispered into existence with ominous, expectant stillness, it was clear this was going to be a performance of exceptional dramatic scope. Hrůša has a unique ability to shape long musical lines while keeping the tension at a knife’s edge, and here he marshalled the BBC SO into delivering an account that was both viscerally thrilling and deeply moving.
The sheer sonic range was astonishing. At one end of the spectrum, the hushed pizzicatos in the cellos and double basses in the third movement, In Memoriam, were barely audible, pulling the audience into an eerie, conspiratorial hush. At the other, the second movement, The Ninth of January, saw the full might of the orchestra erupt in waves of overwhelming power – ear-splitting, exhilarating, almost terrifying in its force. The symphony’s climaxes had a raw, unfiltered intensity that never felt excessive or gratuitous, but instead completely in service of the music’s relentless narrative.

One of the evening’s most unforgettable moments again came in the third movement, with the viola lament rendered with aching beauty. Hrůša had the players eating out of his hand, drawing an astonishing level of detail and expressive depth from the orchestra. Throughout the performance, the balance was impeccable – every section of the BBC SO shone, and I do not think I have ever heard them play this well. The final moments, with their relentless momentum and sheer sonic weight, had an almost physical impact, as if the music itself were demanding a response. That response came in a spontaneous standing ovation from an audience that had been holding its collective breath for the last 60 minutes.
It is clear, based on this concert and Hrůša’s recent performances of Jenůfa at the Royal Opera House, that London audiences have already taken him to their hearts. With his appointment as music director of the Royal Opera House beginning in September, that connection is only set to deepen.
This was an evening that reminded us of the raw power of live performance – of music’s ability to unsettle, to inspire, and to move us in ways we cannot quite articulate. Hrůša and the BBC SO delivered something truly extraordinary, a performance that will linger in the memory long after the climactic tolling bells of Shostakovich’s symphony have faded. It was a privilege to be there.
The concert will be broadcast on BBC Radio 3 and it will be available on BBC Sounds on Tuesday 4 February.
Keith McDonnell