While channel surfing, I heard music that I recognized. Even though my familiarity with classical music is a bit more extensive than what I picked up from Walt Disney’s “Fantasia” and the William Tell Overture (Who was that Masked Man?), I was still surprised that I knew immediately what it was and stopped to listen and then watch. Drama! Everyone was just so impassioned as they attacked this compelling piece. It was the BBC Orchestra with Giandrea Noseda conducting the Dmitry Shostakovich 5th Symphony in D minor. The composer wrote it in 1937 after being denounced and persecuted by Stalin and the communist party for being too frivolous and liberal.
Both the conductor and his orchestra performed as if they were in the midst of all the tension – watching friends and family “disappear”, not knowing when it would be their turn to be dragged off to the Peter and Paul Fortress.
Seeming to relive all the drama, Noseda, dressed all in black, led with such intensity, no fluffy white handkerchief for him like Leonard Bernstein, or Louis Armstrong, he refused to wipe the moisture from his brow. Between movements, he would slowly bend from the waist, 45 degrees, and let the sweat drip from his nose onto the podium. He would take a few breaths, (you could see him refocusing) raise himself upright, pick up his baton and rally his comrades – 1st violinist and the rest of the orchestra – on to the final movement building to a triumphant finale. Wow.
(btw – masked man reference -“The Lone Ranger” -popular 50’s TV show, always had the best background music as he and Tonto chased the bad guys.)