The Athens Megaron Concert Hall celebrates the richness of Russian classical music with the Athens State Orchestra’s concert titled “…After Shostakovich”, taking place this Friday, January 10, at 8:30 PM.
The event marks two significant anniversaries: 50 years since the death of Dmitri Shostakovich, one of the towering figures of Soviet-era music, and the 90th anniversary of the birth of Alfred Schnittke, a highly influential composer of late 20th-century classical music.
Program Overview
The evening’s program features works from the Soviet era, composed between 1973 and 1983—a turbulent and uncertain period that foreshadowed the sweeping political changes brought about by perestroika. This decade witnessed the emergence of a new generation of composers who blended modernist influences with classical traditions. Among them was Alfred Schnittke, whose innovative techniques and profound themes have earned him a lasting legacy.
Schnittke, renowned for his polystylistic technique (the blending of multiple styles), was described by British musicologist Ivan Moody as “a composer who was concerned in his music to depict the moral and spiritual struggles of contemporary man in […] depth and detail.”
The concert opens with Schnittke’s Concerto for Viola and Orchestra, written in 1985—just ten days before the composer suffered his first stroke. This emotionally charged work was dedicated to the acclaimed violist Yuri Bashmet, who premiered it on January 9, 1986, with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra under the baton of Lukas Vis in Amsterdam.
Following Schnittke’s masterpiece, the program features Shostakovich’s Six Poems by Marina Tsvetaeva: a song cycle for contralto and chamber orchestra (Op. 143). Composed during the summer of 1973 in the Estonian SSR, the work reflects Shostakovich’s deep connection to Tsvetaeva’s poetry, which he discovered through his student Boris Tischchenko.
The concert concludes with Schnittke’s Suite “Gogol”, drawn from his stage music for a production inspired by Nikolai Gogol’s satirical play The Government Inspector. In 1975, Yuri Lyubimov, the renowned director of the Taganka Theater and a key figure in Russian theater, commissioned Schnittke to compose the musical arrangement for his new production of the play.
Performers and Details: The evening will be conducted by Nikos Vassiliou, who leads the Athens State Orchestra alongside two distinguished soloists: violist Ilias Sdoukos and falcon soprano Maria Katsoura.
Tickets are available here, and further details can be found on the official Megaron Athens Concert Hall website.
