Dmitri Shostakovich: 2 sonatas and 24 preludes (Hyperion)
If I listen one more time to Andrey Gugnin playing DSCH I shall probably be locked up for my own safety, at least until after…
Browsing: Shostakovich
Dmitri Shostakovich: 6th and 7th symphonies (Deutsche Grammophon)
The sixth and seventh symphonies are central to the composer’s work, in both senses of the term. Written in 1939 and 1941, they develop the…
Cello concertos (Pentatone/Myrios)
Mstislav Rostropovich commissioned more than 100 works for his instrument and performed some of them more than once. Aside from the two Shostakovich concertos and…
Shostakovich: Symphonies 4 and 11 (Deutsche Grammophon)
Two problematic symphonies by a tortured composer are despatched by the Boston Symphony and its Latvian conductor with near-nonchalance. The 4th, withheld by the composer…
Eclectic, Eccentric, and Essential Sounds of Revolution, from Shostakovich to The Beatles to Frank Zappa
*Very limited seats remaining!* September 14, 2017, Montreal, QC – The MCO, under its Artistic Director Boris Brott, opens its 78th season with Revolution, an eclectic evening…
Lebrecht Weekly – Shostakovich, Martinu: Second cello concertos (Bis)
The second concerto for cello by Dmitri Shostakovich is the least ingratiating of the six he wrote, two for each major instrument. Opening with a…
Les Saisons Russes de Montréal: Fifth Edition
Saisons Russes de Montréal celebrates its fifth anniversary this year. The festival was founded by two pianists, Jean-Fabien Schneider and Irina Krasnyanskaya, the latter of…
Lebrecht Weekly – Dmitri Shostakovich: First Symphony (Pentatone)
Great recordings are easy to review. Likewise bad ones. About 99.5 percent of all releases fall somewhere in between. Of these, four in five quickly…
This Week in Montreal: March 6 to 12 : Another Brick In The Wall, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, and the Violons du Roy
Monday, March 6 Two quartets at Pro musica: Created in the seventies at Prague Conservatory, the Pražák Quartet has become one of the most…
Lebrecht Weekly – Boris Giltburg Plays Shostakovich
What is remarkable about both piano concertos is that neither was intended for virtuoso performers. Shostakovich wrote the first in 1933 for himself to play…
