ST Petersburg Symphony. Brahms Piano Concert no. !. Shostakovich, Symphony No. 5.

Garrick  Ohlsson played a beautiful Brahms Piano Concerto no 1  receiving 8 ovations...remarkable master, who I discover lives in San Francisco.  

 Yuri Temirkanov  conducted the most exceptional Shostakovich Symphony No. 5, which was a complex response to Soviet politics in the period.    For those who think it is about affirming joy, it is about affirming joy because one must affirm joy.  I have never heard such a brilliant rendition.  I was moved to tears and riveted to my seat through the First Movement, nearly laughed aloud in the scherzo, and then was riveted to my seat in the largo, and moved to tears in the final  Movement.   Only a Russian symphony and one conducted by this man could do this.(  The orchestra is top heavy, with men,  - I counted nearly 75 and 12 women....)   Every member of the audience was on their feet, with thundering unending applause! 

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