Shostakovich Festival Leipzig 2025
A tradition established by the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra has been two-yearly festivals devoted to a single composer; these have been dedicated to Gustav Mahler, Felix Mendelssohn and J S Bach in recent years, and marking the fiftieth anniversary of the composer’s passing in 1975 Dmitry Shostakovich is to be the subject in a two-week festival covering almost all of his works. Dmitry Shostakovich visited the city of Leipzig several times in his career – the first time was for the Bach Festival in 1950, and he composed his Eighth String Quartet in the town of Görlitz in Saxony. His score for the feature film about the bombing of Dresden Five Days and Nights was composed after visiting the bombed city of Dresden. The Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra gave the German premiere of Shostakovich’s Tenth Symphony under the baton of Fritz Konwitschny in Leipzig.
This portrayal of Shostakovich’s works will be between 15 May and 1 June in a festival featuring all fifteen symphonies and string quartets in what will be one of the most comprehensive examinations of the works of the great composer. The symphonies will be performed by the Gewandhaus Orchestra under their Kapellmeister Andris Nelsons. The Latvian conductor will also conduct the Boston Symphony Orchestra in several symphonies, and there will be two special concerts of the ‘Leningrad’ Symphony by an orchestra of both the Gewandhaus and Boston Symphony Orchestra musicians.
Another innovative series of concerts will be directed by the young conductor Anna Rakitina with the Festival Orchestra comprising members of the Mendelssohn Orchestra Academy, the Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra and students from the University of Music and Theatre ‘Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy’ Leipzig. There will be also a two-day symposium examining Shostakovich’s musical legacy involving musicologists from the US, Europe and Russia organised by the German Shostakovich Society.
Among the soloists in a complete survey of the concertos for piano, violin and cello will be an unsurpassed roster of world-class artists in Daniil Trifonov, Nikolaj Szeps-Znaider, Antoine Tamestit, Gautier Capuçon, and Baiba Skride. The renowned Quatuor Danel will perform all fifteen string quartets in the chamber music series, and one concert will be with the Gewandhaus Quartet playing the Octet by Shostakovich. A thought-provoking series of concerts will be given by the Salon Cappuccino Orchestra who will perform theatre and light music by Shostakovich.
Interestingly, there will be late-night performances by actors accompanied by piano portraying the composer’s life illustrated by paintings of the composer and friends. Following several concerts will be showings of documentary and feature films about the composer including Two. The Story Told by Shostakovich’s Wife, Five Days and Nights and Testimony. Yulianna Andreeva will perform the 28 Preludes and Fugues written in dedication to J S Bach. Shostakovich’s vocal works will be heard in two matinee recitals performed by Maria Prudenskaya, Elena Stikhina, Bogdan Volkov and Gunther Grossböck accompanied by Elena Bashkirova. Another highlight will be a concert of his choral works given by the MDR Choir directed by Philipp Ahmann, including Stravinsky’s Symphony of Psalms in an arrangement for mixed choir and four hands by Shostakovich.
Closing the festival programme will be two performances of the opera Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk at the Leipzig Opera, conducted by Andris Nelsons, in a production directed by Francisco Negrin.
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