Rafael Payare conducts Beethoven and Shostakovich

Venezuelan maestro Rafael Payare continues his widely-lauded tenure at the head of the prestigious Orchestre symphonique de Montréal in a symphonic double header of contrasting time periods and styles, demonstrating the orchestra's renowned versatility. First up is Beethoven's effervescent Symphony No. 1 in C major, composed before the young genius's 30th birthday and bearing the influence of Haydn and Mozart while gesturing toward the paradigm-shifting symphonies yet to come. After the pause, Payare and the OSM turn to the second of Shostakovich's three "War Symphonies," the monumental Symphony No. 8 in C minor. "The philosophical conception of my new work," wrote the composer with bitter irony, "can be summed up in these words: life is beautiful. All that is dark and evil rots away, and beauty triumphs." The terror of 1943 cannot fully be dispelled by the end of the work, which serves as a testament to the power of Shostakovich's symphonic writing, the chaos of war, and the fragility of peace.