Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 10 is a work Paavo Järvi and the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra know well. Following a performance at Carnegie Hall in 2003, The New York Times wrote, “...the blistering performance of Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 10...showed the potential that Mr. Järvi and [the CSO] have, and suggest a powerful chemistry between them....The orchestra played with a transfixing ferocity.” The piece was also featured prominently on a hugely successful CSO tour of Europe in April of 2008 that included sold-out performances in Vienna, Amsterdam and Paris. It was premiered in 1953 following the death of Stalin, and paints a bleak portrait of life under the dictator’s rule. Many commentators believe that the whirlwind-like second movement is a musical representation of Stalin the man, and the havoc and destruction that followed in his wake.
Although Veljo Tormis is mostly recognized for his prolific choral works, his Overture No. 2, which was premiered in 1959, is an early, purely orchestral piece. Paavo Järvi, who is himself originally from Estonia believes that Tormis is one of the more important Estonian composers and that this Overture is something truly unique. He also suggests that between the epic statement of Shostakovich’s tenth symphony and the sheer drama of the Tormis piece, we can hear the response of two different and distinct voices to the Stalinist era. On this disc the two pieces appear together as works emerging from two countries at a common point in their history, both sharing the same conviction, urgency and strength.
