Shostakovich: Violin Concertos 1 & 2

Featuring

Vladimir Jurowski
Alina Ibragimova
State Academic Symphony Orchestra of Russia “Evgeny Svetlanov”
Dmitri Shostakovich

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Interpretation

Alina Ibragimova performs the opening passage of the finale of the First Violin Concerto as Shostakovich originally intended it, a first for a commercial recording.

Composition History

Shostakovich began composing his First Violin Concerto in 1947, intending it for David Oistrakh, who was already the leading Soviet violinist.

Compositional Technique

The First Violin Concerto is almost unique among violin concertos for having four movements, and Shostakovich himself called it 'a symphony for violin and orchestra'.

Notable Performances

The First Violin Concerto was premiered in October 1955 by David Oistrakh with the Leningrad Philharmonic under Yevgeny Mravinsky, after the deaths of Zhdanov and Stalin.

Composition History

Shostakovich composed his Second Violin Concerto to mark David Oistrakh's sixtieth birthday, though he miscalculated the year of Oistrakh's birth.

Instruments

The Second Violin Concerto calls for a smaller orchestra than the first, with double woodwind and four horns, but no harps, trumpets, or trombones.

Historical Context

The Zhdanov Decree of February 1948 publicly humiliated Soviet composers and prevented Shostakovich from releasing his First Violin Concerto to the public at the time.