Babi Yar Symphony

SALZBURG, Austria — Shostakovich’s “Babi Yar” Symphony, a celebration and condemnation of Russian life and cultural memory, was met at the Grosses Festspielhaus here on a recent evening with a standing ovation that lasted over five minutes.

Where they took a wrong step, they were following Currentzis’s baton, which was less reliable than when he and the orchestra performed a moving, sweeping account of Shostakovich’s “Babi Yar” Symphony during the festival’s Ouverture Spirituelle last week.

Last week at the festival, he led a performance of Shostakovich’s “Babi Yar” Symphony, featuring members of the MusicAeterna choir and the Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra.

Among Mr. Masur’s other highly praised outings were performances of Tchaikovsky’s “Pathétique” Symphony; choral works, including Debussy’s “Le Martyre de Saint Sébastien” and Arthur Honegger’s “Jeanne d’Arc au Bûcher”; and Shostakovich’s “Babi Yar” Symphony.