Dmitry Shostakovich: Suite on Verses of Michelangelo Buonarroti Op. 145; Viola Sonata Op. 147: Ignat Solzhenitsyn, piano; Simon Barrad, baritone; Timothy Ridout, viola
Tuesday 22 February started with my assumption that I would be spending the next three days with an old friend of mine in Wales, half way up a valley without wifi, electricity and phone signal, a very agreeable prospect. I set off on the train in relatively calm – even sunny – weather but became completely stuck at Shrewsbury – the trains to Machynlleth (where I was meant to be meeting my friend) weren’t running, and no taxis or rail replacement bus services could get through flooded roads in the aftermath of Storms Dudley, Eunice and Franklin. After 4 hours of hanging around Shrewsbury Station, seeing if any element of the situation was going to change (it wasn’t!), I gave up and decided to head for London to spend a couple of nights there and go to two Wigmore Hall programmes. This was the first of the two – and very good it was! Neither concert would have normally quite provoked me into the cost of a trip to London, but, as I was in holiday mode anyway, and given that I would in all probability never hear any of these works again live in my lifetime, it was definitely worth going!
The Shostakovich Michelangelo verses were written in the last years of his life – a kind of equivalent to Das Lied von der Erde. They are stark, spare, and definitely not full of lightness and humour….. not even much saracasm! Some of them deal with exile (in Shostakovich’s life, internal, though there were many whom he knew who were or became actual exiles – Rostropovich, for instance, or Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, and indeed the pianist at this performance, Ignat Solzhenitsyn, is the middle son of the author). Some of the songs expressed the difficulties of speaking truth to power and, for me, the two best, most immediate, ones were those entitled Death and Immortality. The latter used a piece of music which Shostakovitch had written when he was 9, thus giving that last song a sense of what he had achieved creatively over a span of 60 years of composing. It was sad to reflect on this distinguished contribution to Russian culture, and the beautiful sound of the Russian language, on the day when Putin recognised parts of the Ukraine as independent states, and two days before Ukraine as invaded. Simon Barrad, an American singer I’ve not come across before, produced what sounded to me like idiomatic Russian singing, often with some beautiful sounds though occasionally a bit strained. I have never heard this work before. The spareness of gesture is impressive, and it is gripping throughout, even though at first there is seemingly little variation in tone
The Viola Sonata is work I know a little – I have a recording and have listened to it a few times. I really like it – the beautiful slow-moving last movement, based around a few phrases of the Moonlight Sonata, the very last of Shostakovich’s sardonic scherzos, with a hint of kletzmer, and the long dark opening movement. It is very affecting to hear that last movement as the final work Shostakovich ever completed. Timothy Ridout made a stunningly beautiful and mellow sound. I thought this was an outstanding performance – well worth missing a cold night in a remote Welsh cottage for…..
John's musical journey 