Shostakovich 2025: Marin Alsop in Beyond the Baton video series
Boosey & Hawkes | Sikorski continues its series of web videos with conductor Marin Alsop discussing the music of Dmitri Shostakovich in his 50th anniversary year.
Fifty years after the death of Dmitri Shostakovich, leading conductors contribute to a new series of web documentary features, Beyond the Baton, presented by Boosey & Hawkes | Sikorski. With a longer viewpoint possible, Shostakovich’s creative life is reassessed from the perspective of the conductor’s rostrum. The video series offers insights into Shostakovich’s works in their historical Soviet context and their ongoing relevance for today’s musical and political situation.
The second video in Beyond the Baton, released on 2 April, features conductor Marin Alsop. She explains how, from first hearing Shostakovich’s Symphony No.5 conducted by Leonard Bernstein, she has been continually fascinated by the work’s universal drive for freedom. She describes her interpretation of the symphony, aiming to capture its storytelling, immense variety and swift cinematic changes of focus, and discusses questions relating to the composer’s tempo markings. While her American perspective on Shostakovich’s music inevitably plays a part, Marin Alsop views his art as exploring fundamental human issues which transcend political barriers.
> View the Marin Alsop video on YouTube
This video follows the opening introduction by conductor Semyon Bychkov, released in January, with future contributions to be released later in the anniversary year from conductors including Vladimir Jurowski and Simone Young. The Beyond the Baton series was created by Boosey & Hawkes | Sikorski in collaboration with videographers Open Strings Berlin.
Visit our www.boosey.com/shostakovich2025 web page for an introduction to the composer, programming suggestions, downloadable brochure and works catalogue, and links to publications, recordings and a calendar of upcoming Shostakovich 50th events. Presenting organisations can also download anniversary logo assets for inclusion in digital marketing and concert programmes.
2025 brings the completion of the Boosey & Hawkes | Sikorski new edition of Shostakovich’s symphonies. These revised and corrected large-format study scores have been newly computer typeset and the parts are also compatible for performance use with scores in ‘The New Collected Works of Dmitri Shostakovich’. The final publications, completing the set of 15 symphonies, are due for release in May 2025, including Symphonies Nos. 2, 3, 12 and 14.
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