The Power of its Art

In today's Independent on Sunday, you can read my article about Shostakovich's Seventh Symphony, featuring an interview with Semyon Bychkov. He's conducting the work with the BBC Symphony Orchestra this Thursday at the Barbican. I wanted to ask Bychkov, who was born in Leningrad and whose mother endured the siege during the war, why he was repeatedly drawn to this piece. Far from talking, rather predictably, about the Symphony's wartime inception and narrative, we found ourselves discussing Russia today, because 'the power of its art ensures that it really is not just about 1941, but about the world'. That, of course, includes the contradictions of a country and its 'pattern of autocratic regimes, from Peter the Great to the present day'. Click here to read about Shostakovich with a contemporary spin.

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