Oh To Believe in Another World: Shostakovich 10

Programme

Part of Southbank Centre’s festival Multitudes

Oh To Believe in Another World is an animated film to ‘illuminate and honour’ Shostakovich’s powerful Symphony No. 10. Shostakovich’s symphony was premiered a few months after the death of Stalin, and in it he puts into music the violence and dread of Russia’s years under the dictator’s regime. Using collage, puppets and masked actors, artist William Kentridge creates a dream-like ‘Soviet museum’ to accompany the symphony, featuring a cast of characters including Lenin, Stalin, and Shostakovich himself.

William Kentridge works in many disciplines, from drawing, sculpture and textiles to dance and opera – a 2022 retrospective at the Royal Academy simply called him a ‘global creative powerhouse.’ Much of his work addresses the politics of oppression, in his native South Africa and around the world.

To complement Shostakovich’s symphony, Marin Alsop has chosen Leonard Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms. Bernstein was a huge admirer of Shostakovich, both as a composer and on a personal level. Commissioned by the Dean of Chichester Cathedral, these hopeful and life-affirming psalm settings are a plea for peace. And at their commissioner’s request, there’s more than a dash of West Side Story about their upbeat rhythms and youthful energy.