Performance on 3 - Great Russians: Shostakovich - Fri, 15th May 2009 - Part 1

From the Bridgewater Hall, Manchester, Martin Handley presents a concert from the BBC Philharmonic's Great Russians series. The orchestra's Russian chief guest conductor Vassily Sinaisky appears with one of Britain's operatic stars, John Tomlinson, for the Suite on Verses of Michelangelo, which are settings of verses by the great Italian artist and poet. One of Shostakovich's last works, written in 1974, it is symphonic in scope, and consists of 11 orchestral songs in which every text has to do with the life and work of the artist, including his achievements, his setbacks, his loves and his sense of destiny. John Tomlinson (bass) BBC Philharmonic Vassily Sinaisky (conductor) Shostakovich: Suite on Verses of Michelangelo.