Fulham Symphony Orchestra plays Ustvolskaya and Shostakovich

This concert features the UK premiere of Galina Ustvolskaya's Symphonic Poem No 2, written in 1959. Ustvolskaya was a pupil of Shostakovich, but developed her own distinctive compositional style, of which she said, “There is no link whatsoever between my music and that of any other composer, living or dead.” Shostakovich himself wrote, “It is not me who has influenced you; you have influenced me”.

Scored for an enormous orchestra of over 100 musicians, Dmitri Shostakovich’s Symphony No 4 had its premiere delayed by 30 years due to Soviet censure. On its first performance, the composer told a friend: “In many ways, it seems to me the Fourth is better than the symphonies that came after.”

Photograph courtesy of ustvolskaya.org