Revolution is the theme of this concert. Haydn’s Symphony No. 85 has also been called La Reine (the Queen), because it was the favorite work of French Queen Marie Antoinette. That is why this work is on our program, as a representation of a time that ended with the French Revolution, a key event in the development of European democracy. Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 11 describes the events of the Russian Revolution of 1905, but in fact refers to events in connection with the Hungarian uprising in 1956, when the Russian Army killed demonstrators in Budapest.