Solihull Symphony Orchestra - Glière and Shostakovich

Born in Hungary, Rita was awarded a scholarship to study at the Birmingham Conservatoire and has performed with many local orchestras, including the CBSO Youth Orchestra. In 2008 Rita was selected to be a Young Artist of the Royal Philharmonic Society and won a Sir John Barbirolli award. In 2010 Rita won first prize with distinction in the chamber music competition at the North London Festival of Music and Drama, and in 2012 she won the Concerto Competition of the Central England Ensemble. Following postgraduate study at the Guildhall School of Music, supported by the Guild of Freemen of the City of London, Rita was awarded an honorary Junior Fellowship at the Birmingham Conservatoire, where she is currently assisting the harp department. As a keen advocate for the harp, Rita is a committee member of the United Kingdom Harp Association and organiser of the harp competition at the Bristol Festival. Recently, she has given several Wednesday lunchtime recitals at St Alphege Church. Rita said, “The Gliere Harp Concerto is one of my favourite works, and I’m very much looking forward to playing it in Solihull”.

The concert also includes Dmitri Shostakovich’s epic 5th Symphony written in 1937 to appease the Soviet authorities after his opera, 'Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District' had been denounced by Stalin. Although the work appeared to be compliant with the approved musical idioms of the time, and was humbly sub-titled 'a Soviet artist’s response to justified criticism', some critics suggest that it contains hidden musical messages of dissent. Perhaps the rousing finale is just a little too joyful? As his son Maxim wrote, “It says again and again: ‘No. You will not be able to do anything to me.’ It is not happiness. It is not victory. It is the determination of a strong man to be.”