Music:
Maurice Ravel, La Valse, choreographic poem for orchestra
Dmitri Shostakovich, Symphony No. 7 in C major Leningrad op.60

Under the direction of Marko Letonja, the Strasbourg Philharmonic Orchestra performs a tribute program to the struggle for freedom, the Song of the Partisans, with works by Shostakovich and Ravel.

Three works, three screams. Shostakovich's epic Leningrad Symphony became a symbol of Russian resistance to the Nazis during the siege of that city; But who was the real enemy? Many years later, Shostakovich apparently said that the symphony was dedicated to Leningrad "which Stalin had destroyed and Hitler had simply finished annihilating." Steeped in violence and indignation, sadness and nostalgia, pride and deep ambiguity, it is one of the greatest monuments of the twentieth century.

Marko Letonja's passion and energy make him a formidable interpreter of Shostakovich. The concert program opens with Ravel's feverish Waltz and Atmospheres, composed in 1961 by György Ligeti who fled Russian tanks in Prague.

Direction: Marko Letonja (Music Conductor)
Cast: Strasbourg Philharmonic Orchestra