The Russians Came to the Bowl

Last night the Los Angeles Phil performed works of two Russian composers.  The orchestra was led by Leon Botstein who is with the American Symphony Orchestra and the Bard Music Festivals.  He has been president of Bard College in New York since 1975.  He opened the concern with an introduction of the concert titled "Russian Resistance."  
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Violinist Jennifer Koh was the soloist on the Prokofiev Violin Concerto N. 2 in G minor.  She is "recognized for her intense commanding performances delivered with dazzling virtuousity and technical assurance...with impassioned musical curosity."  She was born in Chicago of Korean parents and made her debut with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra at age 11.

Sergei Prokofiev, (1881-1953) wrote the Concerto in 1935 and soon thereafter he repatriated to Russia.  He left his homeland in 1918 and lived in the U.S. and Paris but homesickness and opportunity led him back to Russia.

The second half of the evening was the Dmitri Shostakovich's (1906-1975) Symphony No. 10 in E minor, Op 93.  The program states "Shostakovich's Tenth Symphony is 48 minues of traged, despair, teror and violence and two minutes of triumph."  This symphony is seen as a depiction of the Stalin years of death of 8 to 20 million people by the stalin regime.  Stalin died on March 5, 1953 which is perhaps the reason for the two minues of triumph.  The composer wrote the Tenth right after Stalin's death.