At Sanders Theatre, performers dressed in concert black are ordered in rows upon the stage, their bows moving in unison. As the strings swell into a racing melody, conductor Federico Cortese’s audible and emotional breaths guide the orchestra forward, cueing the dramatic crash of the cymbals, the militaristic drum of the timpani, and the brass whose sound cuts deep into the upper balcony.
On March 8, 2025, the Harvard-Radcliffe Orchestra (HRO) performed the third concert of its 217th season under the eyes of conductor Cortese and assistant conductor Enoch Li ’26. The program consisted of three pieces, all written by Russian composers: Symphonic Poem No. 2 by Galina Ustvolskaya, Suite on Verses of Michelangelo Buonarroti by Dmitri Shostakovich, and Symphony No. 11, also by Shostakovich. HRO consists of over 100 orchestra and student board members, led by President Veronica Li ’26 and Vice President Brendon Lau ’26.
At first glance, the most apparent connection between the three pieces seems to be their common Russian origin. However, Moshi Tang ’27, a violinist, assistant concertmaster, and tour committee member for the orchestra, explained that there is a deeper thread linking the programmed pieces.
“You might also say there’s a theme of war and somewhat something violent about at least the Ustvolskaya [poem] and the Shostakovich symphony,” Tang remarked. “It’s a brutal program.”
Brutal is a perfect word to describe the opening symphonic poem. Composed by Galina Ustvolskaya—a student of Shostakovich—the piece is characterized by unsettling soundscapes, dissonant interjections, and boiling tension.
The poem opened with the tranquil melody of woodwinds and the delicate pizzicato of strings. Suddenly, this hauntingly beautiful peace was shattered by a piercing cry from the brass. Though the poem ultimately morphed into a soft murmur, the ending felt off-putting rather than resolute in light of the earlier chaos.
The next piece, Suite on Verses of Michelangelo Buonarroti by Shostakovich, featured professional baritone singer Junhan Choi. The orchestra performed three songs from the suite, entitled “Night,” “Death,” and “Immortality.” As the suite continued, its tone morphed from eerie to powerful to bright, with Choi’s chilling vocals overlaid upon the hum of the orchestra throughout.
The Harvard-Radcliffe Orchestra evoked powerful emotions—notably, a strong feeling of unease—through their concert. But while the performance of the poem and suite were certainly impressive alone, they also served as the perfect prelude to what was undoubtedly the showstopper of the evening: Symphony No. 11 by Shostakovich.
Shostakovich’s symphony is a masterpiece in storytelling, depicting the events of the 1905 Revolution in Russia. The symphony begins with the first movement, “The Palace Square,” portraying the ominous silence preceding the Winter Palace—the home of the Russian royal family—on Jan. 22, 1905.
Then, as Russian protesters rally in front of the palace, the symphony moves to its second movement. Imperial troops attempt to suppress the uprising and open fire on Russian protesters—a day remembered in history as “Bloody Sunday.” The third and fourth movements, “In Memoriam” and “The Tocsin,” tell the stories of the dead souls, the outraged response of the people, and the continuing oppression of the royal regime.
The magic of the concert was not just in the symphony’s story itself, though. It was also in how the Harvard-Radcliffe Orchestra communicated the story—particularly in the piece’s second movement. The segment began with the drone of low strings and flutes occasionally chirping a quiet melody above. As tensions rose, other woodwinds joined the orchestra.
Suddenly, with the swell of the timpani, the strings morphed into a rapid, fluttering triplet pattern while the brass sent piercing notes soaring through the theater. After successive crashes from the cymbals, the orchestra retreated into its initial state—low strings with a delicate overlay of woodwinds.
Everyone in Sanders Theatre discerned Shostakovich’s foreshadowing of the Bloody Sunday atrocity. His masterful use of timbre to represent different characters and feelings, combined with the orchestra’s portrayal of these details, left a powerful impression that lingers with me even as I write this article.
The symphony’s storytelling went a layer deeper through the use of motifs. “[The] music of that first movement comes back in different forms throughout the rest of the piece,” added Tang. “For example, at the end of the second movement…after the violence of the Bloody Sunday…[Shostakovich] returns to the extremely still music of the first movement, and it takes on a new meaning.”
However, the credit for an incredible performance does not just go to Shostakovich. The Harvard-Radcliffe Orchestra’s portrayal of the symphony’s details evoked emotions inscribed deep inside the score, truly bringing the story of the 1905 Revolution to life.
Violist Graham Lee ’28 explained that the orchestra’s choice to perform the symphony as they did was not trivial. “In classical music, I feel like there’s a debate on whether you should take music as it is…versus look at it from a historical perspective,” Lee said. “I think [for] this piece, you definitely want to do the latter because it’s directly based off of a historical event.”
This approach of looking beyond the score was instrumental in the Harvard-Radcliffe Orchestra’s success. The symphony was performed in a way such that any audience member—even one knowing nothing about Russian history—felt the discomfort of each silence, the bangs of gunshots, and the anger of the Russian protestors deeply. The orchestra played each note not just in the context of the adjacent measures but of the surrounding history, too.
It is important to note that the predominantly American audience of Sanders Theatre could not resonate with the symphony like a Russian one would. “In the writing of the symphony, Shostakovich relied on many Russian folk songs and folk tunes,” remarked violinist Cal Alexander ’27. “So there is this national or cultural connection embedded in the music, which I think makes it especially powerful for the Russian audience, which will make our reception of the music of as students at Harvard or people in Cambridge very, very different because we’re not familiar with these folk tunes.”
However, despite the audience’s lack of cultural context, the Harvard-Radcliffe Orchestra’s performance was met with roaring applause and a standing ovation. The orchestra’s ability to worldlessly retell a story—the story of a symphony—was nothing short of incredible.
Ishaan Tewari ’28 (itewari@college.harvard.edu) now listens to Shostakovich and Travis Scott back-to-back.