Fodor's Expert Review Shostakovich Philharmonia

What was once the Nobles' Club before the revolution is now home to the St. Petersburg Philharmonic. Its main concert hall, the Bolshoi Zal, with its impressive marble columns, has been the site of many celebrated performances, including the premiere (in 1893) of Tchaikovsky's Sixth (Pathétique) Symphony, with the composer conducting. (This was his final masterpiece; he died nine days later.) More recently, in 1942, when Leningrad was completely blockaded, Dmitri Shostakovich's Seventh (Leningrad) Symphony premiered here, an event broadcast in the same spirit of defiance against the Germans in which it was written. Later the concert hall was officially named for this composer.