Dmitry Shostakovich - Shostakovich Plays Shostakovich, Vol. 2

Title: Shostakovich Plays Shostakovich, Vol. 2 Artist: Dmitry Shostakovich Release Date: 2004 Label: Eclectra Duration: 61:17 Album Type(s): Special essay (music history, styles, etc.), composition (work) description UPCs: 659682206721, 059682206729 Genre: Classical Total Copies: 0 Members Wishing: 0 Number of Discs/SwapaCD Credits: 1

1. Quintet for piano & strings in G minor, Op. 57
   - Prelude. Lento
2. Quintet for piano & strings in G minor, Op. 57
   - Fugue. Adagio
3. Quintet for piano & strings in G minor, Op. 57
   - Scherzo. Allegretto
4. Quintet for piano & strings in G minor, Op. 57
   - Intermezzo. Lento
5. Quintet for piano & strings in G minor, Op. 57
   - Finale. Allegretto
6. Prelude for piano, in C sharp minor, Op. 34/10
7. Prelude for piano, in D flat major, Op. 34/15
8. Prelude for piano in B flat minor, Op. 34/16
9. Prelude for piano, in D minor, Op. 34/24
10. From Jewish Folk Poetry, song cycle for soloists & piano, Op. 79 (orchestrated as Op 79a)
    - The Lament for the Dead Child
11. From Jewish Folk Poetry, song cycle for soloists & piano, Op. 79 (orchestrated as Op 79a)
    - The Thoughtful Mother and Aunt
12. From Jewish Folk Poetry, song cycle for soloists & piano, Op. 79 (orchestrated as Op 79a)
    - Lullaby
13. From Jewish Folk Poetry, song cycle for soloists & piano, Op. 79 (orchestrated as Op 79a)
    - Before a Long Parting
14. From Jewish Folk Poetry, song cycle for soloists & piano, Op. 79 (orchestrated as Op 79a)
    - A Warning
15. From Jewish Folk Poetry, song cycle for soloists & piano, Op. 79 (orchestrated as Op 79a)
    - The Abandoned Father
16. From Jewish Folk Poetry, song cycle for soloists & piano, Op. 79 (orchestrated as Op 79a)
    - The Song of Misery
17. From Jewish Folk Poetry, song cycle for soloists & piano, Op. 79 (orchestrated as Op 79a)
    - Winter
18. From Jewish Folk Poetry, song cycle for soloists & piano, Op. 79 (orchestrated as Op 79a)
    - A Good Life
19. From Jewish Folk Poetry, song cycle for soloists & piano, Op. 79 (orchestrated as Op 79a)
    - The Young Girl's Song
20. From Jewish Folk Poetry, song cycle for soloists & piano, Op. 79 (orchestrated as Op 79a)
    - Happiness
21. The Gadfly, film score, Op. 97

It doesn't really matter if the performer is terrible if the performer is the composer. No matter what, if the performer is the composer, something absolutely vital about the music is being communicated through the performance, to wit, what the composer thinks it should sound like. And when the performer is Dmitry Shostakovich, a composer who was trained not as just a pianist but as a performer, the mandate to hear him perform his own music is irrefutable. And these recordings by Shostakovich playing with other performers with whom he had composed the music being performed are absolutely essential for anyone who loves the composer. Shostakovich's 1955 recording of his magnificent Piano Quintet with the Beethoven Quartet is still, even with the superlative Richter/Borodin recording in the running, the most powerful, the most affecting, the most exhilarating recording of the work ever made. Shostakovich's 1956 recording of his almost unbearably tragic From Jewish Folk Poetry is one of the most moving performances of any piece of music ever recorded. Shostakovich's 1956 recording of transcriptions of Preludes (4), Op. 34, with Leonid Kogan is bitter and brilliant. And Shostakovich's recording of an excerpt from his The Gadfly is droll, dry, and very lightly ironic. Although the Soviet sound is antique, the engineers at Eclectra have done what can be done to make it bearable to modern ears. ~ James Leonard, All Music Guide

Name Credits André-Gilles Duchemin Artistic Director, Producer Beethoven String Quintet String Quartet Dmitry Shostakovich Piano, Liner Notes Guy Marchand Liner Notes Ilene McKenna Liner Note Translation Martin Léveillée Digital Remastering