School Children revive Shostakovich's Mouse
(February 2006)
In keeping with this year’s centenary celebrations of Shostakovich, January saw two performances of one of his lesser known works, The Silly Little Mouse. A whole host of teachers and children from the Bolton area were joined by the Hallé Orchestra, conducted by Andre de Ridder. This was the first performance of a new translation of the text by Gerard McBurney, a world expert in Soviet music, who also narrated the piece dressed as a rooster.
Perhaps the most delightful of Shostakovich’s works for children, The Silly Little Mouse was based on the well-known story by Samuil Marshak, one of the most popular, Russian children’s writers. When the silly little mouse won’t go to sleep, his mother turns to the neighbours, the duck, the pig, the toad, the horse and the pike, for help but in the end it’s the cat that succeeds in singing the silly little mouse to sleep. However, the next morning the cat is discovered to have run away with the silly little mouse. The other characters all set off to find him, led by the dog, and they come to his rescue just in the nick of time as he’s about to be eaten.
Mr and Mrs Mouse, Mrs Cat and Mrs Pig sang superbly and certainly filled the hall whilst Alison Clark’s delightful costumes and impressive sets really captured the spirit of the work. The Production, directed by Caroline Clegg, was received wonderfully by over three thousand enthusiastic seven-year-olds which even included a group of deaf children and two signers.
‘They loved it!’ Put quite simply by Gerard McBurney.
This performance of one of Shostakovich’s more obscure works just goes to show what an accessible composer he is, appealing to the music academia and young children alike.
Look out for a new edition of this work to be released shortly in a new volume of Film Music from the Collected Works, published by DSCH (ISMN: M-060-11167-9).
> Further information on Work: The Silly Little Mouse
Photo: Hallé Orchestra
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