THE LENINGRAD SYMPHONY ON THE NEVA

The solemn concert to mark the 80th anniversary of the first performance of Dmitry Shostakovich’s Seventh Symphony in besieged Leningrad took place on August 9, 2022, on the Spit of Vasilyevsky Island in St. Petersburg. Shostakovich’s great music was performed by the Youth Symphony Orchestra of Russia under the baton of People’s Artist of the USSR Yuri Bashmet. The concert was directed by Viktor Kramer. Konstantin Khabensky, Alexey Guskov, Vladimir Ilyin, Svetlana Kryuchkova, Evgeny Tkachuk, and Vitalia Kornienko recited poetry against the background of the immortal beauty of the unconquered city. The concert’s guests of honor were the defenders and residents of the besieged city, whose heroic deeds inspired Shostakovich’s great music, which was destined to become a symbol of Leningrad’s undying glory.

The President of Russia Vladimir Putin sent a special video address to mark the 80th anniversary of the first performance of the symphony in his home city. The legendary Leningrad Symphony was performed on the banks of the Neva River by talented young musicians from all over the country selected in the course of a strong competition.

The hosts for the concert were Darya Zlatopolskaya and Andrey Malakhov. The concert included poems by Anna Akhmatova, Olga Bergholtz, Boris Ryzhy, Robert Rozhdestvensky, Marina Tsvetaeva, excerpts from Leo Tolstoy’s diary, speeches by Daniil Granin, and memoirs of Karl Eliasberg, conductor of the Great Symphony Orchestra of the Leningrad Radio Committee, and the oboist Ksenia Matus, who took part in the first performance of the Seventh Symphony in the besieged city.