The Hallé

A majestic fanfare opens our new season, as the trumpets of Shostakovich’s 1954 Festive Overture herald five-minutes of joyful high spirits. Its dutiful optimism, composed in just three days in celebration of the 37th anniversary of the Bolshevik revolution, would no doubt have felt forced to him, having been harried by the Soviet regime for several years. But it’s hard to resist the overture’s blistering momentum and the soaring nobility of its...