Nelsons No5 plot
There are a number of symphonies that transport the audience as well as the performers into a state of rapture. Coincidentally, three of them are fifth symphonies, written by the musical masters Mahler, Beethoven and Shostakovich. In Nelson's No 5, world-famous Latvian conductor Andris Nelsons performs Shostakovich's masterpiece together with one of the most renowned orchestras in the world, the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra from Amsterdam. In the film we follow the entire process, from his arrival at Schiphol from America, where he is the permanent conductor of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, through the rehearsals in which Nelsons shows his vital, sensitive side, to an impressionistic montage of fragments from three performances of the work. In addition, the conductor talks about his sober childhood and musical upbringing in Riga, and about the profound influence of Shostakovich's music on his development as a musician and conductor.