"This symphony is so powerful!"
Conductor Nicholas Collon spent a lot of time trying to understand Dmitri Shostakovich’s symphony No. 8. Now he can't get enough of it.
Written by Fred-Olav Vatne
![](https://ofo.imgix.net/Konsert-og-provefoto/Sesong-2018-2019/Nicholas-Collon-1.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&crop=focalpoint&cs=srgb&fit=crop&fp-x=0.5&fp-y=0.5&h=393&q=90&w=750&s=8ed5ef5fce761d7a9ad19848ea243607 750w, https://ofo.imgix.net/Konsert-og-provefoto/Sesong-2018-2019/Nicholas-Collon-1.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&crop=focalpoint&cs=srgb&fit=crop&fp-x=0.5&fp-y=0.5&h=524&q=90&w=1000&s=012a64c2e3184cf82176c0a7949dd106 1000w, https://ofo.imgix.net/Konsert-og-provefoto/Sesong-2018-2019/Nicholas-Collon-1.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&crop=focalpoint&cs=srgb&fit=crop&fp-x=0.5&fp-y=0.5&h=655&q=90&w=1250&s=e9b0f0d3428efafe6aa9fddb34a36528 1250w, https://ofo.imgix.net/Konsert-og-provefoto/Sesong-2018-2019/Nicholas-Collon-1.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&crop=focalpoint&cs=srgb&fit=crop&fp-x=0.5&fp-y=0.5&h=786&q=90&w=1500&s=145f4fe97cc023f42e7727af2ad0b890 1500w, https://ofo.imgix.net/Konsert-og-provefoto/Sesong-2018-2019/Nicholas-Collon-1.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&crop=focalpoint&cs=srgb&fit=crop&fp-x=0.5&fp-y=0.5&h=917&q=90&w=1750&s=641072bdece3f13e300fea8a8cc3bda6 1750w, https://ofo.imgix.net/Konsert-og-provefoto/Sesong-2018-2019/Nicholas-Collon-1.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&crop=focalpoint&cs=srgb&fit=crop&fp-x=0.5&fp-y=0.5&h=1048&q=90&w=2000&s=2435b597493ead73e13b9a23d1b821db 2000w, https://ofo.imgix.net/Konsert-og-provefoto/Sesong-2018-2019/Nicholas-Collon-1.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&crop=focalpoint&cs=srgb&fit=crop&fp-x=0.5&fp-y=0.5&h=1179&q=90&w=2250&s=84fa0526408f96f723e026ba3a5d0fb8 2250w, https://ofo.imgix.net/Konsert-og-provefoto/Sesong-2018-2019/Nicholas-Collon-1.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&crop=focalpoint&cs=srgb&fit=crop&fp-x=0.5&fp-y=0.5&h=1258&q=90&w=2400&s=2b893e02ee1268299f2ead26f8444d8a 2400w)
Nicholas Collon conducts the Oslo Philharmonic in music by Anatoly Liadov, Benjamin Britten and Dmitri Shostakovich on Thursday 30th August. (Photo: Fred-Olav Vatne/Oslo Philharmonic)
− It is quite enigmatic, Nicholas Collon (35) says about Shostakovich’s eighth symphony, the day before he’s conducting it in Oslo and a few years after encountering it for the first time.
− It’s much less obvious than the seventh or tenth symphony and it took me some time to get into it and understand it. But as I got to know it, I realized it has amazing depth to it. And the more I conduct it, the more I realize the richness of the symphony.
Dmitri Shostakovich composed the symphony in 1943, in the shadow of World War II, and the work has a profound darkness to it.
− This symphony is so powerful and has an incredible structure! After a very long first movement and two brutal, almost warlike scherzos, the fourth movement is ten minutes of complete despair, absolute hopelessness. The last movement is quiet, beautiful and surprising, almost like a catharsis.
Read more about the concert: Liadov, Britten and Shostakovich
− I was turning to look at the brass the entire time
Nicholas Collon grew up in a musical family, learning to play the violin from his mother and piano from his grandmother. As a teenager he began playing viola and organ.
− I grew up surrounded by music. I heard my grandmother practice and give piano lessons from very early on, I used to be lying under her piano listening. I ofted stayed at her house for days, and we’d do eight hours of piano together every day.
At ten, he joined a youth orchestra as a violinist and was deeply fascinated by a less familiar group of instruments:
− We were playing the overture to Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg by Wagner. The sound of the brass was so exciting! I was turning to look at the brass the entire time, thinking “what is that? It’s amazing!
![](https://ofo.imgix.net/Konsert-og-provefoto/Sesong-2018-2019/Nicholas-Collon-2.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&crop=focalpoint&cs=srgb&fit=crop&fp-x=0.5&fp-y=0.5&h=393&q=90&w=750&s=529d63e12a182d7d244828afa2636493 750w, https://ofo.imgix.net/Konsert-og-provefoto/Sesong-2018-2019/Nicholas-Collon-2.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&crop=focalpoint&cs=srgb&fit=crop&fp-x=0.5&fp-y=0.5&h=524&q=90&w=1000&s=d149e897ee84a8f51bf1ded3ff30e14f 1000w, https://ofo.imgix.net/Konsert-og-provefoto/Sesong-2018-2019/Nicholas-Collon-2.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&crop=focalpoint&cs=srgb&fit=crop&fp-x=0.5&fp-y=0.5&h=655&q=90&w=1250&s=7bba73b9eb9a83338156a9ad54e01a7e 1250w, https://ofo.imgix.net/Konsert-og-provefoto/Sesong-2018-2019/Nicholas-Collon-2.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&crop=focalpoint&cs=srgb&fit=crop&fp-x=0.5&fp-y=0.5&h=786&q=90&w=1500&s=a94cc679ef5ba104a6867dcd576cafc7 1500w, https://ofo.imgix.net/Konsert-og-provefoto/Sesong-2018-2019/Nicholas-Collon-2.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&crop=focalpoint&cs=srgb&fit=crop&fp-x=0.5&fp-y=0.5&h=917&q=90&w=1750&s=424c479c8910a647f6a356e1d8ce11ab 1750w, https://ofo.imgix.net/Konsert-og-provefoto/Sesong-2018-2019/Nicholas-Collon-2.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&crop=focalpoint&cs=srgb&fit=crop&fp-x=0.5&fp-y=0.5&h=1048&q=90&w=2000&s=96b1b5019dfa69fa34e033a950d3dc89 2000w, https://ofo.imgix.net/Konsert-og-provefoto/Sesong-2018-2019/Nicholas-Collon-2.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&crop=focalpoint&cs=srgb&fit=crop&fp-x=0.5&fp-y=0.5&h=1179&q=90&w=2250&s=ae12a412769eb42a750b82e94ac5d8f8 2250w, https://ofo.imgix.net/Konsert-og-provefoto/Sesong-2018-2019/Nicholas-Collon-2.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&crop=focalpoint&cs=srgb&fit=crop&fp-x=0.5&fp-y=0.5&h=1258&q=90&w=2400&s=a938bfc98792d379bc40f3cd376b10c6 2400w)
Nicholas Collon rehearsing with the orchestra. (Photo: Fred-Olav Vatne/Oslo Philharmonic)
Thinking outside the box
In 2004 Nicholas Collon founded the Aurora Orchestra together with fellow conductor Robin Ticciati, where Collon today holds the position of principal conductor.
− The orchestra’s emphasis now is thinking outside the box in the way we present concerts. We do a lot of collaborating with other art forms: film, ballett, text, plays, videos, always trying to keep the music in the foreground.
The Aurora Orchestra also enoys challenging themselves on playing without sheet music:
− The last five years we’ve been playing many symphonies from memory, the whole orchestra, which allows us to do very unusual things with the music. We often go out into the audience and allow them to be inside of the orchestra.
Read about our next Shostakovich concert: Åm, Grieg and Shostakovich