Barrie Kosky stages the opera that shocked Stalin

In his opera “Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk,” which premiered in 1934, Dmitri Shostakovich addressed taboo topics such as murder, sex, torture and rape. There is also incredible music. The composer is said to have repeatedly looked anxiously into Stalin’s box. After a scathing review in Pravda, the work was banned and Shostakovich slept on packed suitcases. Barrie Kosky directs “his” comic opera.

Sergei Prokofiev suffered a similar fate in 1947 with his dark 6th Symphony. The RSB plays under Vladimir Jurowski.

Pianist Ivo Pogorelich is considered as brilliant as he is idiosyncratic. He comes to a Beethoven recital at the Philharmonic Hall. Also: chamber music with Daniel Hope and Charlotte Spruit. Our classical music tips of the week.

1 The RSB plays Prokofiev’s 6th Symphony

The premiere of his 6th Symphony in Leningrad in October 1947 was a success for Sergei Prokofiev. It is a masterpiece, introspective, composed in a dark E flat minor. Prokofiev wrote the symphony with a sense of the horrors of World War II. But this soon no longer corresponded to the party’s heroic ideas. It was banned as “formalistic”.

The Radio Symphony Orchestra under Vladimir Jurowski plays the rarely performed work. In addition, the fantasy for violin and orchestra by Josef Suk (soloist: Christian Tetzlaff) and “Premonition” by the Ukrainian composer Eduard Resatsch.

2 Chamber music by Charlotte Spruit

To experience the Leonkoro Quartet with a new line-up for the first time, all you can do is hope for remaining tickets. But the rich chamber music program in the Boulez Hall has even more to offer. We recommend the program “Nachklänge” by violinist Charlotte Spruit and pianist Angus Webster at the same location.

It revolves around the themes of memory and transience, but also renewal. Spruit and Webster play works from four centuries: from John Dowland’s “Flow, My Teares” to Brahms’s 1st Violin Sonata, Debussy’s last work, the Sonata for Violin and Piano in G minor, to Thomas Adès’ “Fairy Tale Dances”.

3 Lady Macbeth von Mzensk

Soprano Ambur Braid made her debut at the Komische Oper in 2024 as Senta in Barrie Kosky’s production of Wagner’s “The Flying Dutchman”. Now she returns as the protagonist in Dmitri Shostakovich’s dark and erotically charged work “Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk”, also directed by Barrie Kosky. On stage she embodies the rich merchant’s wife Katerina, who has an unhappy marriage and suffers from her tyrannical father-in-law.

Gripped by a longing for love, she plunges into an affair with the philanderer Sergei and uses violence to free herself from her bonds. But she is not granted a happy ending with her lover, both are sent to a prison camp, and the opera ends tragically. Soviet dictator Stalin is said to have been amused by a graphic sex scene before he had the play banned.

“This is the darkest role I have ever played,” admits Braid. “Katerina is trapped, she is oppressed by the patriarchy and is lonely. When her passion finally awakens again, everything happens very quickly. I don’t think she wants to become a murderer in the first place. But she can’t survive otherwise, it’s the only way to escape her marriage.”

Braid criticizes the fact that many composers have written works in which women are portrayed as problem cases. “This image of women still exists worldwide today, and political discussions can be had about it,” she emphasizes. “I see Katerina as a strong character – and let’s be honest: is there any woman who isn’t strong on the inside?”

4 Ivo Pogorelich plays Beethoven

The flowing, wild hair has long since given way to a practical, now graying short haircut. Things have become noticeably quieter around Ivo Pogorelich. Today it is primarily his still idiosyncratic interpretations that either cause enthusiasm or incomprehension.

The Croatian pianist polarized people right from the start of his career. The scandal is legendary when the then 22-year-old did not make it to the finals of the 1980 Chopin Competition and jury member Martha Argerich resigned in protest and described him as a “genius”. Pogorelich became a superstar in the classical music world and landed on magazine covers. A few years ago, he said with incomprehension that they compared him to Mick Jagger. And the geniuses are the composers whom he only serves.

After retiring in the 90s, he can now be seen regularly on concert stages again. In the Philharmonie, the 67-year-old plays a Beethoven program: Sonata No. 8 in C minor op. 13 “Pathétique”, Sonata No. 17 in D minor op. 31/2 “Der Sturm”, Sonata no. 23 in F minor op. 57 “Appassionata” as well as the Bagatelles in D major op. 33/6 and E flat major op. 126/3.

It could once again be a special evening with Ivo Pogorelich.

5 Dianel Hope and the Zurich Chamber Orchestra

With his charming live streaming “Hope@Home” during the pandemic, South African-British violinist Daniel Hope brought comfort and distraction to many people. At that time he was broadcasting from his living room in Berlin. Hope’s roots also lie in our city. The grandparents who had to flee from the Nazis came from Berlin.

With the Zurich Chamber Orchestra he plays works by Mozart and contemporaries as musical director and soloist. There is Gluck’s Dance of the Furies (from: Orpheus and Eurydice, Wq. 41) as well as the Concerto for Violin and Orchestra in A major by the violinist and composer Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges. He was born in Guadeloupe, the son of a French nobleman and a slave. Joseph Bologne was not only considered a virtuoso musician and great fencer, he also vehemently campaigned for the abolition of slavery.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Symphony in D major KV 196+121 (207a) and the Violin Concerto in B major KV 207 can be heard.

6 You/Me/Alien – A Space Opera

The composer Evan Gardner is one of the co-founders of the Opera Lab Berlin. At the Delphi Theater he is now embarking on a trip into unknown galaxies with “You/Me/Alien – A Space Opera”.

A twelve-member international ensemble weaves experimental vocal techniques and choreographies with instrumental timbres from strings, brass, drums and electronics to create an otherworldly sound theater. The spectacle is billed as an “experiment in radical empathy.”