Nicholas Collon and Aurora Orchestra pull off another dramatic performance from memory

Max Revell as Dmitry Shostakovich
© BBC/Andy Paradise

Max Revell (actor/dancer)

Polly Frame (actor)

Craig Stein (actor)

Sarah Twomey (actor)

Samuel West (voice of Stalin)

Petroc Trelawny (voice of Telephone Operator)

Aurora Orchestra

Nicholas Collon (conductor)

Alexandra Wood (leader)

Jane Mitchell (co-director, scriptwriter)

James Bonas (co-director)

Scott Graham (for Frantic Assembly) (co-director)

Sean Hollands (for Frantic Assembly) (associate to Scott Graham)

Zakk Hein (video designer)

David Bishop (lighting designer)

BBC Proms
7.30pm, Sunday 16 & 17 August, 2025 (reviewed at 17 August performance)
Royal Albert Hall, London

Max Revell (Shostakovich), Frantic Assembly,
Aurora Orchestra and Nicholas Collon
© BBC/Andy Paradise

★★★★

Shostakovich's Fifth by Heart

A musical and dramatic exploration of Shostakovich's Symphony No. 5

Dmitry Shostakovich (1906-1975): Symphony No. 5 in D minor, op. 47

'Dancer Max Revell, a silent Shostakovich, contorted and twisted his body, literally pulled in all directions. Men in black lifted and manhandled him, and also some of the musicians, who played their examples while upside down or in the air'.

'The device to demonstrate parallel interpretations of the symphony worked and, as ever with Shostakovich, there’s no definitive answer'.

Nicholas Collon conducts Aurora Orchestra
© BBC/Andy Paradise

'The standing musicians were at their freest to move and engage with each other, with sections of violins moving as one body as they scurried forward'.

'The snare commenced the final build-up to the spectacular finish, and every musician knew exactly where this was going, but also their part in getting us there'.

'Sunday lunchtime never felt so elementally exhilarating!'

Read my full review on Bachtrack here.