Profoundly human
Not until later on, in his posthumously published memoirs, did Shostakovich provide a personal insight into his Symphony No. 8 in C minor, Op. 65, which he completed on September 9, 1943 in only two months’ time, following a short, yet agonisingly dry creative period: “The Seventh and the Eighth are my ‘Requiem’.” At the time, his first comments on the new work were very different, and (as was usual during Stalin’s regime, one should add) meaningless: “This work mirrors my thoughts and feelings following the joyous reports on the first victories of the Red Army.” For sure ... After all, it would be hard to come up with another 20th-century symphony that sounds as inscrutable and sadly fateful as Shostakovich’s Eighth.

Following his triumphant Leningrad Symphony, the composer had deeply disappointed the expectations of the Apparatschik with this work, as a great part of the Eighth is pensive and melancholy, and does not announce the victory of the Red Army at Stalingrad. Quite the opposite, instead of producing emotional and enduring symphonic music, Shostakovich the man not only expresses his deep mourning of the dreadful tragedy of the Second World War and its countless victims, he also announces in the most deeply pessimistic tone the individual suffering of the people in the Soviet Union, who (also before the war) suffered and died under Stalin’s reign of terror. Shostakovich’s hope that the authorities would interpret the resignative tone of the work as a consequence of the German aggression, was rapidly dashed, and thus the Eighth was censured in1948, after Shostakovich, Prokofiev and other leading composers had been accused of “formalistic tendencies”. The symphony was banned from the concert podium, and numerous radio recordings of the work were destroyed.
In the urgency of its individual message, the Symphony No. 8 often exceeds the pain level of the listener. It functions as absolute music, without a programme being imposed from the outside. The Symphony contains five movements, of which the first represents a gigantic introduction, lasting almost 25 minutes. Within the first bars, this movement presents the nucleus of both the music and the content of the entire work – second intervals in octaves in the low strings with double-dotting at the intervals C – B flat – C, which creep in an absolutely insidious manner into the world. The tempo increases gradually during the course of the movement, the themes are subjected to dramatic, even apocalyptic intensifications, until the motif from the beginning is hurled out by the brass in fff at the climax of the movement, distorted by the percussion. The in parts strident, even screeching instrumentation (piccolos!) provides an expressive release full of unrestrained power. Grief has perhaps never been portrayed in a more tragic, dreadful and individual manner in music. The following Allegretto is a grotesquely distorted march, in which Shostakovich parodies a paraphrase of the German waltz Rosamund. As far as harmony is concerned, the composer distances himself here from the major-minor system. The third movement is formally speaking a toccata. In comparison to the first movement, a perfectly simple piece of music: however, in its motor functions and rhythmic persistence it keeps the listener in its ban. Without interruption, the crotchet passages course throughout the entire movement like a machine, shaded by screeching interjections from the woodwind. Pure nihilism. The orchestral power swells up towards the end of the movement, after which the fourth movement, a Largo-Passacaglia, follows on immediately. A continuously tragic style of writing is characteristic for this movement with melodic sequences full of semitones. The bass theme appears twelve times, above which the other instruments seem to hover. This is followed without a break by the Finale, which Detlef Gojowy interpreted as “’autonomous music’ in the sense of a Bach Invention”. The pastorally tinted movement is constructed in episodes and presents a Fugato, which ends in catastrophe. And thus Shostakovich denies his Symphony No. 8 any kind of resolution, or apotheosis. The work fades away in pianissimo, questioning, resignative

Paavo Berglund
For many years, Paavo Berglund conducted the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra as well as the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra in his native Finland. From 1987 to 1991, he was chief conductor of the Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra, and from 1993 to 1996 he held the same position with the Royal Orchestra in Copenhagen.

In England, where he was chief conductor of the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra from 1972 until 1979, he has also worked closely with the London Philharmonic Orchestra and the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra. Furthermore, he has toured Europe with the BBC Symphony Orchestra, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and the Chamber Orchestra of Europe.

He has conducted many major European orchestras, including the Berlin Philharmonic, the RSO Berlin, the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, the London Philharmonic Orchestra, the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, the Russian National Orchestra, the Zurich Tonhalle Orchestra, the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra and the Orchestre National de France. He is regularly invited to guest-conduct the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra and the Chamber Orchestra of Europe.

In the USA, Paavo Berglund has conducted the Minnesota Symphony Orchestra, the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra, the Boston Symphony Orchestra and the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, as well as the New York Philharmonic Orchestra, the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra and the National Symphony Orchestra in Washington, among others. In the autumn of 1997, he returned to conduct the Cleveland Symphony Orchestra, the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra and the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. In December 1997, he gave concerts with the Russian National Orchestra in Moscow, St. Petersburg and Tampere. Other activities included guest-conducting appearances with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe at the Edinburgh and Helsinki Festivals in August 1998, where he conducted all Sibelius’ Symphonies. During 2004/2005 he undertook a tour with the London Philharmonia Orchestra. In October 2004, there were concerts with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, where he returned in January 2005. Further engagements for 2005 included concerts with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra.

Paavo Berglund has recorded all of Sibelius’ symphonies for EMI with both the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra and the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra. He recorded this cycle for the third time with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe for Finlandia/Warner Bros. He has also recorded all the Nielsen symphonies with the Royal Danish Orchestra.

His recordings have received many prizes, among others a “Grammy” nomination for his world-première recording of Sibelius’ Kullervo Symphony, and the “Diapason d’Or” for his Nielsen cycle. His extensive discography also includes symphonic works by Shostakovich, Smetana and Dvorák.

Russian National Orchestra
The Russian National Orchestra has been in demand throughout the music world since its 1990 Moscow début. The first Russian orchestra to perform at the Vatican and in Israel, the RNO maintains an active schedule of touring and is a frequent guest at major festivals. Of the orchestra’s 1996 début at the BBC Proms in London, the Evening Standard wrote: “They played with such captivating beauty that the audience gave an involuntary sigh of pleasure.” By the time of the RNO’s 10th anniversary, the orchestra had been reviewed as a “major miracle” (Time Out New York) and classical music’s “story of the decade” (International Arts Manager). In 2004, the RNO was described as “a living symbol of the best in Russian art” (Miami Herald) and “as close to perfect as one could hope for” (Trinity Mirror).

Gramophone magazine listed the first RNO CD (1991) as the best recording of Tchaikovsky’s Pathétique in history, and reviewed it as follows: “An awe-inspiring experience; should human beings be able to play like this?”. Since then, the RNO has made more than 30 recordings for Deutsche Grammophon and PentaTone Classics, with conductors such as Mikhail Pletnev, Mstislav Rostropovich, Kent Nagano and Alexander Vedernikov.

In 2003, the orchestra signed a new multi-disc agreement with PentaTone Classics. One of the first results of this collaboration – a recording of Prokofiev’s Peter and the Wolf and Beintus’ Wolf Tracks, conducted by Kent Nagano – won a 2004 Grammy Award, which made the RNO the first Russian orchestra ever to win the recording industry’s highest honour.

Unique among the principal Russian ensembles, the RNO is independent of the government and has developed its own path-breaking structure. It is perhaps the only orchestra to have established a Conductor Collegium, a group of internationally renowned conductors who share the podium leadership.
Another innovation is Cultural Allies, which was created in 2001. Cultural Allies encompasses exchanges between artists in Russia and the West, and also commissions new works. Prominent RNO partners in Cultural Allies include Dave and Chris Brubeck, Hélène Grimaud, Sophia Loren, Wynton Marsalis, John Corigliano and Michael Tilson Thomas.

The Russian National Orchestra is supported by private funding and is governed by a distinguished multinational board of trustees. Affiliated organizations include the Russian National Orchestra Trust (UK), the Russian Arts Foundation and the American Council of the RNO.