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Sent: 09 October 2006 11:08
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Subject: Dmitri Shostakovich
Shostakovich:
My Life at the Movies
Dancers
on a Tightrope: Beyond Shostakovich
Sunday 15 October 2006
Queen Elizabeth Hall, South Bank
Centre
There is the opportunity to step back in time and be
taken through the life and career of composer Dmitri Shostakovich in Shostakovich:
My Life at the Movies at the South Bank Centre
on 15 October. The specially-commissioned evening concert uses the actor Simon Russell Beale to play the part of
Shostakovich and takes the audience through reminiscences of his life from
being a pianist in the pit at the cinema to the end of his life when he had
become one of the greatest film composers of his age. With excerpts of
rarely – seen films, the evening is accompanied by Mark Fitz-Gerald leading the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and
gives a unique chance to hear the composer's music in context. The programme
has been devised by
Shostakovich, whose centenary is celebrated this year,
composed nearly 40 film scores throughout his life. His long career in
cinema stretched from boyhood to old age – from accompaniments to silent films, early Stalinist epics, comedies
and animations, propaganda films and, finally his late Shakespearean scores. The
evening includes excerpts from the youthful silent-movie fun and games of The New Babylon and Alone, through the1930’s optimism of
The Counterplan, the unexpected
comedy of The Adventures of Korzinkina and
the kitsch of The Gadfly, to his
late scores for Grigory Kozintsev’s
Hamlet and King Lear. Earlier in the day there
is also a chance to see a free screening of the documentary film Family Album, which features rare footage
of Dmitri Shostakovich and his family.
The events are part of a weekend entitled Dancers
on a Tightrope: Beyond Shostakovich (13 – 15
October) which has been devised to shed a fascinating light on two crucial but
neglected areas of his output: songs and film music.
Throughout the weekend there will also be the
opportunity to watch screenings of short Soviet
cartoons in the QEH foyer, including classics by Yuri Norstein, and cartoons featuring the
music of Alfred Schnittke, Sofia Gubaidulina and others.
Other film events held throughout the weekend are on
Saturday 14 October when there will be a free screening of A Cry in the Universe, a documentary film
about the Russian composer Galina Ustvolskaya, who
studied with Shostakovich at the Leningrad Conservatory (1939 –
1947). The accompanying film of her Symphony No.2 will also be
shown.
For further press information please contact Jenny Wegg at
the South Bank Centre on 020 7921 0824 or email [log in to unmask]
or Kenny Morrison on 020 7921 0962,
Dancers on a Tightrope: Beyond Shostakovich
Film
Events
Film: A Cry In The Universe
Documentary film about Ustvolskaya
Admission free
FAMILY ALBUM
Screening of the documentary film, Family
Album, featuring rare footage of Dmitri Shostakovich and his family,
directed by Oksana Dvornichenko
Admission free
CITY OF
Mark Fitz-Gerald conductor
Simon Russell Beale actor
Anna Azernikova soprano
Shostakovich: Film Music
Tickets: £8 - £22
Society for Co-operation in Russian & Soviet Studies
Tel: 020 7274 2282
Fax: 020 7274 3230
Eml: [log in to unmask]
Web: www.scrss.org.uk
Registered Charity: 1104012