Maestro Kristian Alexander talks about Honegger's Rugby and Shostakovich's Symphony No. 4 in a live-to-air interview on the Classical 96.3 FM radio (February 2, 2023).
Artistic inspiration comes in many forms. The joy of sport is decidedly prevalent in the rhythmically rowdy Rugby by the avant-garde Swiss-French composer Honegger. At the request of his publisher, and in collaboration with a seasoned American violinist, Stravinsky penned his brightly bombastic neo-baroque Concerto for violin and orchestra. Up against the doctrine of social realism, Shostakovich was forced to withdraw the score of his enormously orchestrated abstract Symphony No. 4, only to be performed 25 years after its creation.