Shostakovich: Symphony No. 15 (Arr. for Piano Trio and Percussion) / Piano Trio Nos. 1 and 2

Featuring

Eckard Fischer
Mario de Secondi
Michael Hauber
Guido Rückel
Johannes Schulin
Steffen Uhrhan

Trio Opus 8
Dmitri Shostakovich

Did you know?

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Composer's Artistic Vision

Shostakovich's musical ideas were often indebted to Gustav Mahler, highlighting his somewhat anachronistic position in modern European music history.

Performer Biography

Trio Opus 8, formed in 1986 by three musicians with established solo careers, has won numerous chamber music prizes and performed internationally for twenty years with the same lineup.

Composer Biography

Dmitry Shostakovich, born in 1906 in St. Petersburg (then Leningrad), was a versatile artist who made significant contributions to almost every musical genre and was also a world-famous pianist.

Historical Context

Shostakovich's progressive operas were fiercely criticized by the Communist Party, which demanded 'Socialist Realism' and a simplification of tonal language, repressing 'Western decadence'.

Composer's Artistic Vision

Shostakovich's Fifteenth Symphony, though intended to be cheerful, turned out to be tragic but also contained signs of hope and confidence, with the composer stating, "I have not placed a full stop with this symphony."

Compositional Technique

The Piano Trio No. 2 incorporates Jewish themes, with Shostakovich noting in his memoirs that Jewish folk music, with its hidden despair expressed in dance, made the greatest impression on him.

Composition History

The Piano Trio No. 1, written in 1923 before his First Symphony, was dedicated to Tatyana Glivenko, with whom the 17-year-old Shostakovich fell in love during a sanatorium stay.