Quatuor Molinari: The Quartet According to Shostakovich
Quatuor Molinari marks the recent 50th anniversary of Shostakovich’s death with a series of Montreal concerts featuring his complete string quartets. “This is one of…
Browsing: Shostakovich
Lebrecht Weekly | Dmitri Shostakovich: The last 3 quartets (Harmonia Mundi)
There is a tension within this recording that I have struggled to resolve. The Cuarteto Casals are currently among the world’s best string quartets, certainly…
CD Review | Lura Johnson, The Art of Prelude and Fugue
The Art of Prelude and Fugue Lura Johnson, piano Azica Records The two volumes of the Well-Tempered Clavier are rarely performed in their entirety. When…
Lebrecht Weekly | Yulianna Avdeeva Brings a Light Touch to Shostakovich’s 24 Preludes and Fugues
For the bicentenary of Johann Sebastian Bach’s death, the Soviets sent their top composer to Leipzig to judge a competition in Bach’s name. Having endured…
Lebrecht Weekly | Fresh and Lyrical Accounts of Britten & Shostakovich Cello Works
The second cello concerto of Dmitri Shostakovich has never matched the first in public appeal or soloist appreciation. Premiered on the composer’s sixtieth birthday, at…
CD Review | Matthias Goerne, Late Shostakovich Songs
Shostakovich: Suite on Verses of Michelangelo, October Matthias Goerne, baritone; Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France; Mikko Franck, conductor Alpha Classics, 2025 This new CD release…
Festival Les Printemps Slaves: An (Almost) Baroque Slavic Spring
The 12th edition of Les Printemps Slaves, Montreal’s only Slavic music festival, takes place May 6-30. Every year, Artistic Director Irina Krasnyanskaya comes up with…
Review | The Twain Shall Meet: Vancouver Symphony Delights in its Return to Toronto
Years ago, after a Paris performance of Shostakovich’s Fifth symphony, I heard the composer’s widow, comparing the work to Vivaldi’s Four Seasons. “Because it’s always…
Lebrecht Weekly | Shostakovich’s 15th Symphony by the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra Under Bernard Haitink
Dmitri Shostakovich wrote his last symphony with left hand alone. A heart attack in 1966, followed by several falls and fractures, left him heavily disabled.…
Review | Kerson Leong Dazzles in Lopsided Les Violons du Roy Program
For Valentine’s Day, Les Violons du Roy presented a program full of pathos at Montreal’s Bourgie Hall. On the program were iconic excerpts from J.S…
