Symphony Orchestra – Chopin and Shostakovich

Warren Mailley-Smith was the first British pianist to perform Chopin’s complete works for solo piano from memory in a series of 11 recitals. His latest recording, soon to be released, includes the work featured tonight, Chopin’s popular first concerto

And on Remembrance Day and Poland’s Independence Day, a short work written in memory of thousands of Polish victims of the Soviet regime in 1940 is followed by perhaps Shostakovich’s most popular work; itself a Russian composer’s response to repression. “I think it is clear to everyone what happens in the fifth. It’s as if someone were beating you with a stick saying ‘your business is rejoicing, your business is rejoicing’, and you rise shakily and go off muttering ‘Our business is rejoicing, our business is rejoicing”‘.