Classical Music

Dmitri Shostakovich is best known for his symphonies and string quartets, which paint him as a very serious composer, indeed. But he was also one of the most prolific film composers of the 20th century, with 36 films for which he wrote the music and which span virtually his entire professional career. It's a fascinating panoply that shows Shostakovich from a side that sometimes gets lost when we think of him merely as tormented and dark. There is the truly unburdened humour and coy delight in quirkiness, which we assume must be "ironic" in his concert works. Still, Shostakovich never took composing lightly, and whether he wrote music for cartoons or symphonic "tombstones", the musical merits are always impeccable.

Dmitri Shostakovich's Symphonies are arguably the most impressive symphonic cycle of the 20th century - certainly, if you don't count Gustav Mahler. The depth and variety of these 15 Symphonies, so closely tied to Shostakovich's personality and the times he lived in, make it particularly rewarding to listen to varying interpretations. Dmitrij Kitajenko's survey, recorded between 2002 and 2004, has found it's place among the great such cycles, both for it's artistic merits and it's reference sonics, the wide dynamics and the impassioned playing from the Gurzenich Orchestra Cologne that the native Leningrad native Kitajenko gets from his musicians.

The works recorded here are by Maximilian Steinberg and Dmitry Shostakovich, the first is the teacher of the second, and both are representatives of different generations in Russian music of the 20th century. Written at almost the same time, their works are very different in their genres, their way of thinking and their imagery. Steinberg's symphony, a fully mature work, remains faithful to the traditions of Russian and European cultures and is set apart by it's conceptualisation of the theme "Personality and the World". Performed in Russia and abroad only during the 1930s, it is recorded here for the first time; a new discovery for lovers of symphonic music undoubtedly awaits. The young Shostakovich, unlike his mentor, grew up in the atmosphere of the avant-garde and the demolition of tradition. In his early ballet The Bolt he paid tribute to the era of socialist industrialisation and created a light-hearted, divertimento-like work, although it does not lack a certain daring. It's theatricality and satirical nature are perfectly suited to the Ural Youth Symphony Orchestra, whose musicians are around the same age as Shostakovich when he composed the ballet.

Santtu conducts Shostakovich is the fourth album from Philharmonia Records, featuring Shostakovich's colourful Sixth Symphony alongside his subversive and sardonic Ninth Symphony. Conducted by Santtu-Matias Rouvali, these performances were recorded at Southbank Centre's Royal Festival Hall in 2023.

Sonatas For Cello And Piano

Works For Cello And Piano

Complete Trios

SHOSTAKOVICH: Symphony No. 5 / The Golden Age Suite

Sitkovetsky, Yulian: Art of Yulian Sitkovetsky (The), Vol. 5

The recording of Dmitri Shostakovich's "Symphony no 4" on this album won the 2008 Grammy Award for "Best Orchestral Performance."

2009 two CD release. The recordings contained in this set of Shostakovich's Fifth, Sixth and Seventh Symphonies were all made soon after the first performances of each work, and have an authenticity as well as a musical immediacy that later recordings inevitably have lacked, good as they may be. These recordings stand as unique sound documents in the history of the interpretation of Shostakovich's music. In addition they testify to Stokowski's own personal style as an interpreter of this composer's works. Shostakovich held Stokowski in high esteem as an exponent of his music.

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music