What really drives Britons, these godless haters of modern politics? We’re about to find out
We have slid into a situation where politicians speak and no one believes them. We are in a mental lockdown
Soon after Shostakovich started writing his Seventh Symphony in 1941, Leningrad was besieged by the Nazis: the start of two and a half years of unimaginable deprivation. The composer carried out fireman duties while continuing work on his masterpiece, before being smuggled out of the city to Moscow. In 1942, his score was performed in Leningrad – and also in the UK at the Proms.
What an occasion that must have been. Listening to the Seventh being performed this week by the Hallé Orchestra at the Manchester Festival (brilliantly conducted by Jonathon Heyward), it was impossible not to be moved by the passion, despair and sense of doom unmissable in the music.
This is not a work with a happy ending; in Russia there was no positive outcome for anyone – particularly Shostakovich, who eventually fled to America.
Subscribe to Independent Premium to bookmark this article
Want to bookmark your favourite articles and stories to read or reference later? Start your Independent Premium subscription today.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies