Czech Philharmonic • Behzod Abduraimov

Symphony No. 11 in G minor, Op. 103, “The Year 1905” (55')

Dmitri Shostakovich

In September 1956 Dmitri Shostakovich celebrated his 50th birthday. He was considered the greatest symphonist of his time and was beginning to take stock. “I think that many things repeat themselves in Russian history. Of course the same event can’t repeat itself exactly, there must be differences, but many things are repeated nevertheless. People think and act similarly in many things… I wanted to show this recurrence in the Eleventh Symphony. I wrote it in 1957 and it deals with contemporary themes even though it’s called “1905”. It is about the people who have stopped believing because the cup of evil has run over. That is how the impressions of my childhood and my adult life come together.” Shostakovich himself was not witness of the bloody suppression of the 1905 St Petersburg uprising, but his family discussed this event all the time. He personally experienced the October Revolution of 1917, whose 40th anniversary had just been celebrated in 1957, and throughout his life he also felt its consequences: bullying and injustice on the one hand, and bombastic tributes and platitudes on the other. He was also constantly confronted with the regime that the 1917 Revolution had established, by which he was attacked and dragged under.

Symphony No. 11 in G minor, Op. 103, was written in 1957 during Shostakovich’s summer stay in Komarovo near what was then Leningrad. Two themes run through the entire work – the theme introduced by the string section at the beginning of the symphony and, in contrast, the ominous timpani strokes. These leitmotifs, which constantly undergo a transformation, symbolize the historical repetition of events mentioned by the composer over the course of four movements played without a pause. Other elements include quotations from 19th-century political songs – songs of the revolutionary year 1905, as well as from Shostakovich’s other compositions. The first movement, introduced by the two contrasting themes of strings and timpani, features a melody of the song “Slushay!” (Listen!) from 1864, followed by “Arrestant” (The Prisoner) from 1857. In the second movement Shostakovich has incorporated melodies from his Ten Choruses on Texts by Revolutionary Poets from 1951; they are gradually escalating into sharp marching rhythms. The uprising breaks out, is defeated, and a deathlike silence reigns outside the Winter Palace. The third movement is a symbolic remembrance of the fallen victims, featuring the well-known funeral march of the Russian revolutionaries “You Fell Victim to a Fateful Struggle” and quotes from other revolutionary songs such as “Baikal”, “'Boldly on We March, Comrades!” and “Welcome, Free Speech”. A new revolution sprouts out of the grief for the dead, and it spreads with the other songs included in the fourth movement. The coda, again with the motif of Palace Square, anticipates a new bloodshed and warns against it.

The symphony premiered on 30 October 1957 in Moscow under Natan Rakhlin. Understandably, it was met with mixed reactions. Party leaders ranked it among the exemplary works of Socialist Realism and honored the composer with the Lenin Prize, but in circles that had already begun to shake off the chains of demagoguery it was regarded as a libation and, as far as its artistic value was concerned, as illustrative film music. After another 50 years, many details of the composer’s complicated life, sandwiched between the millstones of constant party criticism and his own convictions as an artist and human being, are now known. The symphony is now seen in the spirit which Shostakovich himself suggested – as a manifestation of the strangely turning wheel of fate, which returns many moments of development to the starting point from which humanity sets out each time to find anew the justification for its existence.

Behzod Abduraimov

piano

Described by The Times as the “master of all he surveys” and with The Washington Post noting to “keep your ear on this one”, Uzbek pianist Behzod Abduraimov’s captivating performances continue to receive international praise. At just 18 years of age, he won the prestigious London International Piano Competition and has since performed with leading orchestras around the world (the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Cleveland Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra, Bamberg and Vienna Symphony Orchestras, and others). In recent seasons, he has also collaborated with many prominent conductors, including Vladimir Ashkenazy, Manfred Honeck, Vasily Petrenko, Constantinos Carydis, Edward Gardner, Long Yu, Juraj Valčuha, and others. In the fall of 2022, he performed with the Czech Philharmonic and Semyon Bychkov in Rachmaninoff’s Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini – he even recorded this piece in 2020 on the composer’s own piano from Villa Senar in Switzerland for Sony Classical.

The 2025/2026 season, Behzod Abduraimov made a number of notable debuts, including with the New York Philharmonic and the National Symphony Orchestra in Washington, D.C., in both cases under the baton of Gianandrea Noseda. Other concert appearances included the Houston Symphony, Pittsburgh Symphony, Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, and Hong Kong Philharmonic. In terms of recitals, the highlight of the season were his fourth appearance at Carnegie Hall’s Stern Auditorium (he made his debut there in 2015), a return to Queen Elizabeth Hall in London, and other performances in the United States and Europe. In the past, he has performed in many prestigious international recital series organized by the Alte Oper Frankfurt, Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw, La Società dei Concerti di Milano, and Toppan Hall in Tokyo. He also regularly performs at leading international festivals, including Aspen, La Roque Antheron, Lucerne, Ravello, Rheingau, and Verbier. In September 2025, he opened the Georgian Tsinandali Festival with Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1. 

Abduraimov’s recordings are highly acclaimed – his 2012 debut recital CD featuring works by Liszt, Saint-Saëns, and Prokofiev won the prestigious French Choc de Classica and Diapason Découverte awards. He also pays special attention to promoting Uzbek music – on his latest album, Shadows of My Ancestors, released in 2024, he presented, among other things, the work of Uzbek composer Dilorom Saidaminova.

Born in Tashkent in 1990 Behzod began to play the piano at the age of five. He was a pupil of Tamara Popovich at the Uspensky State Central Lyceum in Tashkent and studied with Stanislav Ioudenitch at the International Center for Music at Park University, Kansas City, where he is now Artist in Residence and passes on his experience to younger generations of pianists.