Symphony No 13 / October

An echo of the second performance of the Symphony no.13, on 20 December 1962, still using the original text by Yevtushenko in spite of Khrushchev's order to modify it so as not to pay homage only to the Jews assassinated in the Ukrainian ravine at Babi Yar. After the first performance, two nights before, the ensemble of musicians succeeded in making this a heroic, impassioned ballad, even tinged with humour but vengeful and funereal… with a fantastic rumbling. In addition, by the same incomparable artists, the essential part of Prokofiev's sole patriotic cantata, in the same titanic, specifically Russian vein.