NYPhil Orch. back in the U.S.S.R.

The NYPhilh. rehearsal featured a Russian program by 2 composers, back when the Soviet Union was known as the U.S.S.R.  Rachmanioff's Rahpsody on a Theme of Paganini for Piano & Shostakovich's Symphony #11.  Apropos, guest conductor Semyon Bychkov, a principal conductor of the St. Petersburg Philh., lead the orchestra.  Piano soloist, Kirill Gerstein, earned the Gilmore Artist Award ('10) & an Avery Fisher Grant ('10.)  I'm sorry I was not there to hear Gerstein perform Rachmanioff's piano composition.  Maestro Bychkov rehearsed Shostakovich's Symph. 11 in its entirety.  It's rare that a conductor doesn't to break for artistic adjustments during rehearsals.  Not until after the symphony was performed in its entirety, (over an hr.) did Bychkov have the orchestra return to various movements to critique & repeat.  The 1st 1/2 of the program ran over 1 1/2 hours.  It would have been interesting to compare the 2 Russian contemporaries.  Shostakovich, the younger artist resonated with the powerful percussive style of his predecessor.  However, Shostakovich symphony oscillated between soft & seductive adagios which blended seamlessly into majestic crescendos in the allegros.  The melancholy & elegaic adagios had a defiant answer for the softer movements creating a sense of gentle waves churning into powerful tempest.  I'm sorry I missed the rest.