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Monthly Archive: December 2025

Shostakovich Discoveries – Deutsche Grammophon

Shostakovich Discoveries – Deutsche Grammophon

by | Dec 29, 2025 | Classical CD Reviews

SHOSTAKOVICH DISCOVERIES = Anti-Formalist Rayok; Impromptu for Viola and Piano; Scherzo for Piano; Three Fugues for Piano; Three Fragments from theThe Nose; Five Pieces for Two Violins and Piano; In the Forest; Prelude and Fugue for Piano in C# minor; Murzilka; Yelabuga Nail – DG  28948671908 (78:00) (5/23/25) [Distr. by Universal] ****: Marking the 50th anniversary year of Shostakovich’s death, Shostakovich Discoveries features world premiere recordings and rarities from the renowned composer, performed by such artists as Daniil Trifonov, Gidon Kremer and Nils Mönkemeyer. Most of the pieces were recorded at the International Shostakovich Festival in Gohrisch (Saxony), the world’s only annual Shostakovich festival. The totalitarian Stalin regime in Soviet Russia restricted and even destroyed many creative artists, Dmitri Shostakovich (1906-1975) among those whose works were selectively repressed. Recently, musicologist Olga Digonsaya has unearthed some 300 compositions, in varying states of completion, from the composer’s estate in Gohrisch, near Dresden, Germany. The works cover a range of dates, 1920-1955, in diverse arrangements and genres. This disc offers 10 compositions, several in their world premiere performances. Anti-Formalist Rayok (1948) is a bitterly satiric cantata for bass voice and chorus, a parody of the political correctness that insisted upon a clear distinction between “Realism and Formalism on Music,” […]