Percussion Music and Overture from The Nose Op.15 (1930)

Concerto for Piano and Trumpet in C minor Op. 35 (1933)

Allegro moderato – Lento – Moderato - Allegro con brio

Two Orchestral Fragments from Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk Op. 29 (1934)

In the Home of the Ismailovs – Danger: High Voltage!

Suite from The Clear Stream Op. 39a (1935)

Waltz - Galop - Pizzicato - Dance of the Tribesmen from Kuban

Symphony No. 5 in D minor Op. 47 (1937)

Roly Botha - Narrator (Shostakovich)
Alex Macqueen - Narrator (Stalin/Pravda)
Aleksandar Madžar - Piano soloist
Sam Balchin - Trumpet soloist
Scott Storey - Odyssey Festival Orchestra Leader
Peter Ash - Conductor

The Joker explores composer Dmitri Shostakovich’s relationship with the authorities in Soviet Russia in the 1930s, with excerpts from opera and ballet music and complete performances of two of his greatest works from this period.

The narration will be drawn from Shostakovich’s own writings and other contemporary sources – most notably the main soviet newspaper Pravda (Truth) which, in 1936, accused the composer of writing ‘muddle instead of music’.

After this Shostakovich had to resort to writing in a kind of musical code to survive. The narration explores how he avoided being sent to a labour camp and emerged triumphant with his Fifth Symphony.

The soloists in Shostakovich’s brilliant First Piano Concerto will be the distinguished Serbian master, Aleksandar Madzar, and the orchestra’s star young trumpeter, Sam Balchin.

The conductor is Odyssey’s Artistic Director, Peter Ash. Odyssey Festival Orchestra was launched in 2022. The players are drawn largely from young musicians in the London area aged 18-30. They are recruited from a diverse range of backgrounds.

Odyssey aspires to present great works from the orchestral repertoire in their cultural and philosophical context, using actors and specially constructed scripts to draw the audience to great masterpieces.