Russian Life in the Exil – Inner Emigration VII

The penultimate weekend of the Festival kicks off with an entirely Russian evening – but seen through the lens of exile. Ten years after the premiere of his Second Symphony (performed at the evening by Paavo Järvi and the Tonhalle Orchester Zürich), Sergei Rachmaninov is forced into exile by the escalating revolution, leaving his homeland never to return. In contrast, Dmitri Shostakovich stays in the Soviet Union, engaging in a quiet, internal resistance known as “inner exile”. Rather than fleeing, he challenges the communist regime with music that often, as even the censors acknowledged, speaks between the lines.