Symphony No. 11

Hybrid/SACD Playable on all compact disc players
DSD recorded

"A brilliant recording of one of my favourite Shostakovich symphonies… this interpretation - it chills me to the core”
--John Broggio, SA-CD.net

"This new hybrid disc (combined CD and SACD) with a virtuosic orchestra and conductor delivers both, going to the top of the list of digital recordings.”
--Alan G. Artner, Chicago Tribune

"The Russian National Orchestra is in top form, with its brass department in resplendent form.”
--Robert Benson, classicalcdreview.com

"Mikhail Pletnev and his Russian National Orchestra, recent visitors to Davies Hall, have released a live Brussels performance of the 11th from February 14, 2005 that belongs in every Shostakovich-lover's collection….You don't have to know the history to get the feel of those shattering events in Pletnev's frequently hair-raising account.”
--Tim Pfaff, BayAreaReporter

Dmitry Shostakovich´s eleventh symphony in G minor op. 103 titled "The Year 1905” was composed in the years 1956 and 1957. In the article " Reflecting on the course of my life” (published in Sovetskaja muzyka 9/1956) the composer wrote this about the work "At the moment I'm working on the eleventh symphony which will be finished this winter. The theme for the symphony is the Revolution of 1905. I feel personally very close to this period in the history of our country. It is one that is strongly echoed in workers songs. I don't know if I'll extensively quote them in the symphony but, of course, it will be closely related to the musical language of Russian revolutionary songs.

On the 9th of January 1905 troops, following the orders of Tsar Nicholas, fired on 100,000 unarmed demonstrating workers, women and children, killing thousands. Abroad this day became known as "Bloody Sunday”. There followed plundering and unrest. This fateful scenario colours the four movements of the symphony which carry the following programmatic titles: 1st Movement, Palace Square – 2nd Movement, January the 9th – 3rd Movement, In Memoriam – 4th Movement The Toscin.

The premier of the symphony on the 30th of October 1957 (incidentally the 40th anniversary of the Revolution) allowed one to check the above quoted thoughts of the composer. Yes he largely used revolutionary songs to build the melodic material of the work and which he distributed throughout the four movements. Not less than nine of these songs were used: "Take Heed”, "The Prisoner”, "Oh Tsar Our Little Father”, "The Monarch Exposed”, "The Immortal Victim”, "Forward March Brave Comrades!”, " Greet the Freedom of the Unrestrained Word”, "Rage on you Tyrants”, and "Warschawjanka 1905”. These musical quotes serve a double function. On one side they create a concrete musical relationship to the time of the Revolution, and on the other they are proof of extra musical levels, whose conscious use allows the listener access to the thinking of the composer. Naturally the symphony's content doesn't just contain quotes from other sources, Shostakovich composed motives and themes which are both in oposition to the quotes and also blended with them. Behind these musical quotes lie intense and detailed composing: they were expanded and orientated on the compositional approach used by Shostakovich in his film music. The consequence is a disentangling of the extracts from their isolated context which, through their integration with the movements, gain a new meaning.

On a formal level the single movements are interrelated through intensive thematic linking, non the less there are themes which appear to come more from an elongated "huge symphonic poem” (Meyer) than from a symphony in the usual sense, which can, maybe, be explained by programmatic content. But is the "Bloody Sunday” of 1905 really the only basis for Shostakovich, or did the work have further levels of meaning? In his Memoirs, first published in the USA in 1979, the, and from the soviet leadership coddled, composer gave a surprising explanation „… although I named it "The Year 1905, it refers to the year 1957”. It's about the people who have lost their belief because the chalice of misdeeds has overflowed” In reality, under the cloak of the happenings in 1905, Shostakovich had levelled coded criticism at the Soviet aggression against Hungary in 1956 which lead to the violent putting down of the uprising. Shostakovich the composer was treated with perfidious deceit by the authorities, he was feted as an artist filled with promise one minute and the next in mortal danger of falling a victim to the Stalinist purges. Shostakovich forged his own route through this conflict with the authorities. He never entered in an open (and hopeless) dispute with the state machinery or did he follow the official line in a traitorous way. He was much more than a composer, he became a jurodiwy – a holly fool. The holy fool can see and hear what others cannot even suspect. And he reported on this world in a coded way. A type of anarchist without rules. Shostakovich was such an anarchist. A musical anarchist.
Mikhail Pletnev is an artist whose genius as pianist, conductor and composer enchants and amazes audiences around the globe. His musicianship encompasses a dazzling technical power and provocative emotional range, and a searching interpretation that fuses instinct with intellect. At the keyboard and podium alike, Pletnev is recognized as one of the finest artists of our time.

Pletnev was Gold Medal and First Prize winner of the 1978 Tchaikovsky International Piano Competition when he was only 21, a prize that earned him early recognition worldwide. An invitation to perform at the 1988 superpower summit in Washington led to a friendship with Mikhail Gorbachev and the historic opportunity to make music in artistic freedom.
In 1990 Pletnev formed the first independent orchestra in Russia's history. The risks of this step, even with Gorbachev's endorsement, were enormous and it was Pletnev's reputation and commitment that made his long-held dream a reality. Sharing his vision for a new model for the performing arts, many of the country's finest musicians joined Pletnev in launching the Russian National Orchestra. Under his leadership, the RNO achieved in a few short years a towering stature among the world's orchestras. Pletnev describes the RNO as his greatest joy and today serves as its Artistic Director and head of the Conductor Collegium.

As a solo pianist and recitalist, Pletnev appears regularly in the world's music capitals. His recordings and live performances have proved him to be an outstanding interpreter of an extensive repertoire. Of a 2001 concert the London Telegraph remarked, "from Pletnev's fingers and brain come ideas that vitalise the music and make it teem with freshness and wit. [He] made the music positively leap for joy.” The Times describes his playing as "born of a prodigious virtuosity of imagination outrageous in its beauty.”
Pletnev's recordings have earned numerous prizes, most recently a 2005 Grammy Award for the CD of his own arrangement, for two pianos, of Prokofiev's Cinderella, recorded with Martha Argerich and Pletnev at the keyboards. He received Grammy nominations for a CD of Schumann Symphonic Etudes (2004) and for his recording of Rachmaninov and Prokofiev Piano Concerti No. 3 with the RNO and conductor Mstislav Rostropovich (2003). His album of Scarlatti's Keyboard Sonatas received a Gramophone Award in 1996. BBC Music Magazine called the recording "piano playing at its greatest...this performance alone would be enough to secure Pletnev a place among the greatest pianists ever known.”

As a composer, Pletnev's works include Classical Symphony, Triptych for Symphony Orchestra, Fantasy on Kazakh Themes and Capriccio for Piano and Orchestra. His unrivalled transcriptions for piano of Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker Suite and Sleeping Beauty were selected, along with his performance of Tchaikovsky's Second Piano Concerto and The Seasons, for the 1998 anthology "Great Pianists of the 20th Century”

The son of musician parents, Pletnev was conducting and learning multiple instruments as a small child and entered the Moscow Conservatory as a teenager. For Mikhail Pletnev, the artistic persona of pianist-conductor-composer is indivisible. He considers himself, simply, a musician.
Russian National Orchestra
The Russian National Orchestra has been in demand throughout the music world since its 1990 Moscow début. The first Russian orchestra to perform at the Vatican and in Israel, the RNO maintains an active schedule of touring and is a frequent guest at major festivals. Of the orchestra's 1996 début at the BBC Proms in London, the Evening Standard wrote: "They played with such captivating beauty that the audience gave an involuntary sigh of pleasure.” By the time of the RNO's 10th anniversary, the orchestra had been reviewed as a "major miracle” (Time Out New York) and classical music's "story of the decade” (International Arts Manager). In 2004, the RNO was described as "a living symbol of the best in Russian art” (Miami Herald) and "as close to perfect as one could hope for” (Trinity Mirror).

Gramophone magazine listed the first RNO CD (1991) as the best recording of Tchaikovsky's Pathétique in history, and reviewed it as follows: "An awe-inspiring experience; should human beings be able to play like this?”. Since then, the RNO has made more than 30 recordings for Deutsche Grammophon and PentaTone Classics, with conductors such as Mikhail Pletnev, Mstislav Rostropovich, Kent Nagano and Alexander Vedernikov.

In 2003, the orchestra signed a new multi-disc agreement with PentaTone Classics. One of the first results of this collaboration – a recording of Prokofiev's Peter and the Wolf and Beintus' Wolf Tracks, conducted by Kent Nagano – won a 2004 Grammy Award, which made the RNO the first Russian orchestra ever to win the recording industry's highest honour.

Unique among the principal Russian ensembles, the RNO is independent of the government and has developed its own path-breaking structure. It is perhaps the only orchestra to have established a Conductor Collegium, a group of internationally renowned conductors who share the podium leadership.
Another innovation is Cultural Allies, which was created in 2001. Cultural Allies encompasses exchanges between artists in Russia and the West, and also commissions new works. Prominent RNO partners in Cultural Allies include Dave and Chris Brubeck, Hélène Grimaud, Sophia Loren, Wynton Marsalis, John Corigliano and Michael Tilson Thomas.

The Russian National Orchestra is supported by private funding and is governed by a distinguished multinational board of trustees. Affiliated organizations include the Russian National Orchestra Trust (UK), the Russian Arts Foundation and the American Council of the RNO.