DMITRI SHOSTAKOVICH (1906–1975)

 

Music for viola and piano

 

Lawrence Power - viola

Simon Crawford-Phillips – piano

 

Seven Preludes from 24 Preludes Op 34 arranged by YEVGENY STRAKHOV (1909–1978)

1 Un peu triste (after No 10) [1'39]

2 Marche funèbre (after No 14) [1'57]

3 Une valse vite (after No 15) [0'50]

4 Une valse militaire (after No 16) [1'10]

5 Mélodie amoureuse (after No 17) [1'53]

6 Une danse ironique (after No 18) [0'48]

7 Finale (after No 24) [1'25]

 

Sonata for viola and piano Op 147

8 Moderato [9'31]

9 Allegretto [7'16]

10 Adagio [13'16]

 

Five Pieces from The Gadfly Op 97 arranged by VADIM BORISOVSKY (1900–1972)

11 Scene: Moderato [2'23]

12 Intermezzo: Andante [5'21]

13 Sharmanka (Barrel-Organ Waltz) [2'03]

14 Romance [4'41]

15 Folk Festival [2'43]

 

Lawrence Power makes the second of his appearances in this month’s release lists, this time with his regular pianist partner Simon Crawford-Phillips in the chamber music of Shostakovich. The centrepiece is the Viola Sonata, Shostakovich’s last completed work, premiered posthumously, on what would have been the composer’s sixty-ninth birthday. Its ravishing slow finale reworks the opening of Beethoven’s ‘Moonlight’ Sonata—a tribute to a composer he revered.

 

Shostakovich the film composer also takes a bow, in the form of The Gadfly, with its famous ‘Romance’ beloved of violinists everywhere. That this works just as compellingly on the viola is triumphantly displayed in the arrangement made by Vadim Borisovsky (founding violist of the Beethoven Quartet), one of the Five Pieces he recast from Shostakovich’s original.

 

Shostakovich’s 24 Piano Preludes have also proved irresistible to transcribers and here we have the seven brilliantly reworked by a pupil of Borisovsky, Yevgeny Strakhov.

 

Hyperion Records CDA67865