Philharmonia Orchestra / Vladimir Ashkenazy

Much depends on the interpreters. When Vladimir Ashkenazy was a student at the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory, he became acquainted with Dmitri Shostakovich; attending performances of his works and concerts in which he played. The young musician experienced at first hand the discrepancy between being loyal to one’s country and suffering under a political leadership. For Ashkenazy, Shostakovich’s works and their authenticity remain a permanent challenge. The Eighth is an essential part of his repertoire. His interpretation sucks the listeners into a vortex of music, confronting them with energetic roughness as well as brief moments of lucid beauty: in short, it shatters.

Shostakovich composed out of personal experience. Alexander Zemlinsky learned about Afro-American life through poetry. The anthology Afrika singt showed the downside of the American Dream. This lyric poetry inspired Zemlinsky to write the Symphonische Gesänge: one of his few works containing elements of Jazz. Ten years after the completion of the work, living in exile, he shared the view from below of the land of opportunity.