#London Sinfonietta: Ustvolskaya
The London Sinfonietta plays music from an extraordinary composer who resisted conforming under the ‘Great Terror’ of the Soviet Union.
Galina Ustvolskaya joined the composition class of Dmitri Shostakovich at Leningrad State Conservatoire in St Petersburg, and immediately won his esteem, with the elder predicting ‘world fame’.
However, the conditions couldn’t have been much worse: it was the time of ‘Great Terror’, the Soviet Union’s clamp down on any radical thinkers and artists who veered from the communist line.
Ustvolskaya, writes Kate Molleson, ‘was not the only one having to weigh up the balance between asserting a creative voice and staying alive.’ Her teacher was probably the best known musical dissident of the Soviet Union and made a virtue of disguising political dissent as party-line music.
The London Sinfonietta explores the extraordinary, progressive work of a composer oppressed but far from silenced by an autocratic regime.
This is a story of radical resistance and musical brilliance at once.
Performers
London Sinfonietta
Geoffrey Paterson conductor
Sergej Merkusjev reciter
Repertoire
Ustvolskaya: Symphony No.3 (Jesus Messiah, Save Us!) for voice & small orchestra
Need to know
For your visit
This event is held at the Queen Elizabeth Hall Southbank Centre
The Queen Elizabeth Hall is open from 90 minutes before events start until they finish. It’s closed at all other times.
Plan your visit
The Queen Elizabeth Hall is home to both our second-largest auditorium and the Purcell Room.
Getting here
Our address is Southbank Centre, Belvedere Road, London, SE1 8XX.
The nearest tube stations to us are Waterloo and Embankment; Waterloo is also the nearest train station. And more than 20 different London bus routes pass within 500 metres of our venues. More information on getting here by rail, road or river is available on our Getting here page.
We’re cash-free
Please note that we’re unable to accept cash payments across our venues.
Access
We’re working hard to remove barriers, so that our facilities and events can be accessible to as many people as possible.
All help points, toilets, performance and exhibition spaces at the Southbank Centre are accessible to all, as are the cafes, bars and restaurants. We also have excellent public transport links with step-free access.
All information about booking wheelchair spaces, step-free access, blue badge parking, access maps and guides and other help available whilst you’re here, including details about our Access Scheme, can be found on our Access page.
Food & drink
From coffee to cocktails, filling favourites to fine dining, plus some of London’s best street food – it’s all here at the Southbank Centre.