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Only available recording as a single issue of these works.

As an “obedient” Soviet artist Shostakovich set texts of revolutionary poets to music. The result is vintage Shostakovich: under the blatant populist message of the text we hear a melancholy and tender heart. The choral arrangements of Russian Folk Songs derive inspiration from the rich Russian folk culture, and Russian Orthodox Chant (though of course in a hidden way, as it was forbidden by the authorities).

Excellent performances by Russian forces.

These choruses are not (or not entirely) the tub‐thumping exercises in blatant jingoistic rabble‐rousing that you might expect, but contain many moments of poetry that make them secular rivals to earlier works by Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninov which draw from Russia's great Orthodox tradition of choral music.

In Stalin's Russia such an option was closed to Shostakovich, of course, even had he wished to explore it, but instead he used the poetry of Revolutionary leaders and imbued it both with his own, bittersweet harmonic vocabulary while never losing sight of the powerful character of Russian choruses for whom he would be writing. One such, Moscow‐based, erforms the two cycles on this recording, and they naturally have the idiom, and language, under their skins.

Dmitri Shostakovich was the chronicler, the poet in music, of Soviet Russia: from its bright and optimistic inception as enshrined in his First Symphony, through the gradual alienation experienced by genuinely creative figures within Stalin's regime, to which the suppressed Fourth Symphony and opera Lady Macbeth bear powerful witness, to the pressure to conform and supply music that buttressed the regime's ideals, such as patriotic symphonies and sturdy choral works; finally, to a late, disenchanted rapprochement between individual and state that allowed the elderly composer to retreat from the provision of public work and increasingly to focus his undimmed creative powers on a series of string quartets and song cycles which reinforce, through often cynical and sarcastic expression, the need for a man to retain his own identity and self-respect in the face of overwhelming opposition.

All these facets of the man and his music – rarely has there been a composer in whom the two were so indivisible – are evident from this remarkable collection, the most complete available. All the symphonies and string quartets are here, of course, and the symphonies in particular enjoy the advocacy of special eloquence granted by the leadership of Rudolf Barshai, one of Shostakovich's most trusted intimates and performers. So too, however, are there rarities galore: English folksong settings; unpublished operas; occasional festivities for orchestra; forgotten movie soundtracks. The majority of performers and performances are Russian in origin, including the famous, unparalleled recording of Lady Macbeth sung by Galina Vishnevskaya and conducted by her husband, Mstislav Rostropovich; who naturally also makes his own contribution as a cellist with the First Cello Concerto. David Oistrakh is another dedicatee who brings unique authority to the concertos (violin, in this case). There's even a cameo from Shostakovich himself, who was a superb pianist, as can be heard from this disc of concertos and solo works.

The most comprehensive Shostakovich Edition ever produced!

Shostakovich, one of Soviet Russia’s most famous and fascinating composers, struggled his whole life with the restrictions and demands of the Stalin regime. This however didn’t smother his creativity, on the contrary, it produced a unique ambiguity in his music, a fusion of the trivial and the profound, masquerade and intimate truth, of noise and contemplation, in short, a fusion of all the bizarre elements of life itself.

This set presents the near complete works of Shostakovich: complete symphonies, chamber symphonies, concertos, songs, string quartets, a generous selection chamber music, ballets and suites (the famous Jazz suites!), cantatas, and the operas.

Famous and legendary performers include Rudolf Barshai (a close friend of Shostakovich), David Oistrakh, Mstslav Rostropovich, Evgeny Mravinsky, Gennadi Rozhdestvensky, Kyrill Kondrashin.

Includes several unique historical recordings, featuring Dmitri Shostakovich as a performer/pianist.

Dmitri Shostakovich wrote symphonies and string quartets with violent and intense music. But he did have a sense of humour as well. Just as he could handle the very un-Russian jazz idiom. Both jazz suites show the light-hearted side of Russia’s most important 20th-century composer.

Shostakovich’s piano concertos have become part of the standard concerto repertoire, and for good reason: they are highly effective “show pieces”, with the right balance between moving simplicity and exhilarating wit and brilliance. Especially the first concerto, with its spectacular trumpet solo part, is a regular crowd pleaser.

These performances by the celebrated Cristina Ortiz, drawn from the EMI catalogue, were recorded in the 70ties, and haven’t lost any of their freshness and exuberance.

One of the most celebrated composers of the 20th century; Dmitri Shostakovich’s output includes symphonies, concertos, operas and film scores, among others. With his career constantly hampered by political intervention and the social pressures of Stalin’s Soviet Union, the Russian Maestro’s works are now considered to go some way to providing a chronicle of life during the period. This disc includes the two Piano Concertos; the first was originally intended to be a concerto for trumpet, but during the composition process the piano was added and eventually became the focus of the piece: it is unmistakably reminiscent of Shostakovich’s vaudeville jazz suites. The Second Piano Concerto was written shortly after Stalin’s death, and embraces the new sense of freedom felt by Shostakovich after this event; containing references to Beethoven and Rachmaninoff, it is largely mellow in tone and has become one of the composer’s most popular works.

The collection culminates in the Three Fantastic Dances, Shostakovich’s first pieces for piano. Each of these much‐loved compositions represents a different folk dance, with the lively and capricious first followed by the serenity of the second and thereafter the frenetic pace of the final dance. This recording features the celebrated pianist Cristina Ortiz when she was just 25 years old. She has since worked with such prestigious conductors as André Previn and has performed with orchestras all over the world. In addition to her renown for playing the ‘classics’, she has actively promoted the music of her native Brazil. She is joined on this release by the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Paavo Berglund.

A fascinating programme of song cycles for bass and piano by the great Soviet composer Dmitri Shostakovich.

Although the title “Romances” suggest idyllic meandering melodies, Shostakovich constructs several layers of emotions as expressed by the poetry, from innocent beauty to irony and deep despair.

Performed with profound understanding by Russian forces.

Famed today as one of the 20th century’s great symphonists, and the composer of one of the greatest cycles of string quartets, the songs of Shostakovich have been somewhat overshadowed. However he was a prolific composer of songs, setting not only Russian texts but poems by British and Japanese poets. His songs spanned his entire creative life from his op4 of 1922 to the op146 cycle of 1975 included on this disc.

The earliest songs here date from 1936, and show how the young composer has abandoned his highly energetic and satirical style in favour of a more profound and lyrical one, which he would develop and perfect in works such as the 5th Symphony of 1937.

No doubt Dmitri Shostakovich has been the most influential 20th-century Russian composer. Listen to his powerful symphonies 5, 6 and 7, to both violin and both cello concertos, the jazz suites and the string quartets no.’s 2, 8 and 13.