Digital Concert Hall 

Yutaka Sado conducts Shostakovich and Takemitsu

This broadcast features Yutaka Sado in his debut with the Berliner Philharmoniker in May 2011. As a schoolboy, Sado dreamed of one day conducting the orchestra. That dream became reality with a programme linking Japanese and Russian music. 

The concert opens with Tōru Takemitsu (1930–1996) and his meditative work From me flows what you call time (1990). Written shortly before the composer’s death, the piece uses five percussionists to create soft, shifting colours rather than forceful rhythms. The music reflects Takemitsu’s interest in Eastern traditions, Western modernism and film music.

The second half features Dmitri Shostakovich’s (1906–1975) Symphony No. 5 (1937). Officially presented as a celebratory work, the symphony also carries hidden tension and irony. Moments of triumph shift suddenly into doubt and despair, making it one of Shostakovich’s most complex and powerful works.