"May you live in interesting times"

Last night we had the marvellous experience of hearing the NZ Symphony Orchestra with a Macedonian soloist playing Rachmaninov’s “Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini”. I have never heard this piece played so well or so passionately. Simon Trpceski is only 29 and has had eight years already on the professional concert circuit. He got four ovations.

The symphony of the evening was Shostakovich’s 12th, written the year I was born. It is an extraordinary piece, the composer playing musical “hangman” with his Communist Party bosses. It was written for the 22nd Party Congress and interestingly, in order to perform it, Shostakovich had to become a Party member (for the first time). It seems that the “Powers” missed the subtleties of the themes, intended to scream out the injustices of the times. Instead it was declared a triumph. I left the concert hall feeling the composer’s despair. He was cursed with living in “Interesting Times”