I went to a concert by the Queensland Orchestra with the Symphony No15 in A by Shostakovich in the second half.Dmitri Shostakovich was a Russian composer who was born in St Petersberg in 1906 an died in Moscow in 1975. Apart from being a Harry Potter lookalike, I found an interesting story about something that happened during WWII.
"The 1941 German invasion of Russia inspired the composer's Seventh Symphony, subtitled "Leningrad." Impressed by the symphony's epic-heroic character, Toscanini, Koussevitsky, and Stokowski vied for the Western Hemisphere premiere; the score had to be microfilmed, flown to Teheran, driven to Cairo, and flown out. The work became an enormous success the world over, but eventually fell into obscurity. Still, the composer had for a time become a worldwide celebrity, his picture even appearing on the cover of Time. " (from Answers.com)
According to the programme from the concert he was "arguably the greatest symphonist of the 20th Century". I haven't heard enough classical music to judge, but I enjoyed his 15th symphony very much.
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