Dmitri Shostakovich

Jewelcase + O Card.

Dmitri Shostakovich (1906-75) left us two operas, The Nose, and Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk, plus the operetta Moscow Cheryemusski – or so we thought. After his death several other operatic projects surfaced – some merely sketches, a few numbers from a projected work, and some that exist only in his letters as ideas. As recently as 2009 the torso of a science fiction opera Orango – dating from 1932 was unearthed. Without doubt the most substantial of these tantalisingly incomplete works is The Gamblers, after the comedy by Gogol.

Written in 1942, the year of the epic 7th symphony ‘The Leningrad’ , it occupied the composer almost constantly during this turbulent year. The work is characterised by an acidic black humour, there are no heroes, and no women. The unprincipled card-sharks are believed to represent the world leaders Chamberlain, Stalin and Mussolini playing a game of high stakes with Hitler’s Germany – the result of which is Russia being invaded. Shostakovich followed Gogol’s text word for word – he didn’t need a libretto as he later commented. He soon realised that The Gamblers would never be performed as the satirical treatment of the Gogol story would land him in the Gulag. In spite of pleas from friends to complete the opera well after Stalin’s death, he refused saying ’one should not step in to the same river twice’. The surviving 1st Act needed only a 3 page ending to complete it, and Gennady Rozhdestvensky supplied the missing material and conducted the premiere in 1978.

‘the acute characterisation that Shostakovich brings to Gogol's offhand narrative, and the music's often startling originality accord it far more than mere curiosity value. Voices are prominent, ensuring clarity in this very human drama.’ Gramophone January 1998

An undisputed masterpiece of the Russian repertoire - Shostakovich's Piano Quintet - is joined by the little known Prokofiev Quintet, which had a vexed gestation, and a rarity from the Hungarian-born Matyas Seiber, who lived most of his life in Britain. In it, Peter Pears takes the role of narrator of passages from the James Joyce text. All recordings are released internationally on CD for the first time.

"(Shostakovich) We all know that the Melos Ensemble is a virtuoso group, but I have never heard them give a clearer demonstration of sheer musicality than this. There is plenty of power and brilliance when it is called for, but what is specially exciting is the intensity of expression that they get into the quieter passages-really inward playing, this, full of nuance but without any suggestion of exaggeration." Gramophone.

"(Prokofiev) ...the Melos play it with such immense panache..." Gramophone.

A third of a century after his death the symphonies of Dmitry Shostakovich have moved to the absolute centre of the repertoire.

Written during World War II, the unusually constructed Eighth Symphony is a powerful work built on striking contrasts between music which is at times unremittingly bleak and at others brutally intense.

The predominantly slow opening movement, punctuated by a terrifying central crescendo, is followed by a scherzo of savage parody. At the heart of the Symphony a second fast movement builds remorselessly to a shattering climax over pounding timpani. The rapt, largely introspective fourth movement, Largo, leads straight into the last movement, Allegretto, which seems to reach out for hope in an uncertain world.

Vasily Petrenko’s acclaimed interpretations of Shostakovich’s Symphonies No. 11 (8572082) and Nos. 5 and 9 (8572167) are also available.

2CDs+DVD

Shostakovich’s 1950 visit to Leipzig to attend the Bicentennial Bach competition, where he heard and was impressed by Tatiana Nikolayeva playing Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier, served as an impetus to write his own set of Twenty-Four Preludes and Fugues, loosely modelled on Bach’s. This he accomplished with remarkable, almost unbelievable speed upon his return home (it took him a mere three and a half months). Nikolayeva, blessed as she was with a phenomenal musical memory, performed Op. 87 for the rest of her life, and her name became practically synonymous with the work. This Op. 87 from Alexander Melnikov approaches the work from first principles to come up with his own, eminently musical solutions.

DVD About the Preludes & fugues, interview with Alexander Melnikov and Andreas Staier A film by Christian Leblé.

Format: NTSC; Language: English; Subtitles: Fr, Ger; Total time: 23’14

“…throughout op.87 we hear the voice of a tormented man, finding again and again the superhuman force to face life as it is – in all its variety, ugliness, and sometimes beauty.” Alexander Melnikov

"He has brought new audiences to [these works], and when you hear him play them, you understand why. Stylistically and temperamentally, they suit him remarkably well. This is music that is strenuous and searching without ever aspiring to flamboyance, and Melnikov is a self-effacing performer. He makes us aware of the music's paradox: that subordination to the rigours of Bach-like form permits great expressive, even political freedom. So we were reminded that the E Minor Prelude and Fugue is one of Shostakovich's big triumph-in-adversity pieces, and that the huge G Sharp Minor coupling into which the first half seemingly collapses is a tragic statement of searing intensity. All this was utterly mesmerising" (The Guardian on a live performance at the Wigmore Hall, 28th April 2011)

"Beautiful, bold, striking piano music – as new a sound as any music hidden, forgotten, or forbidden; as traditional a blast as a stiff shot of vodka. But it is also a reminder that the red flag, once a symbol of insurrection and disobedience, has not all-of-a-sudden turned white." John Corbett