Latham-Koenig/ Britten-Shostakovich Festival Orchestra
Cadogan Hall, 25th September 2019
Although political relations between Britain and Russia can still be chilly, The Cold War is long past. Even during that deepest frost, musicians reached out across the divide. One of the most significant composer friendships was between Benjamin Britten and Dmitri Shostakovich, inspiration for a new Anglo-Russian orchestra which bears their names. Britten visited Shostakovich in Moscow six times, while the Russian finally made it to Aldeburgh in 1972, when Britten shared with him work in progress, his final opera, Death in Venice. They conversed in a kind of broken German they called “Aldeburgh Deutsch”. Music was their common language.
Jan Latham-Koenig
© Luke Toddfrey
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