Alexander Mosolov
Donald Macleod presents an excerpt from Shostakovich's surreal debut opera, The Nose, plus his contemporary Alexander Mosolov's extraordinary First Piano Concerto.
Donald Macleod explores Shostakovich's brilliant youth - and the work of five extraordinary lost musical souls - amidst the turmoil and extraordinary originality of 1920s Russia.
Wednesday's programme features Shostakovich at his zaniest - and perhaps most brilliantly original. After two scurrilous arrangements of Scarlatti, Donald Macleod presents excerpts from Shostakovich's first opera, "The Nose", a surreal tale of nasal amputation and Kafkaesque bureaucracy.
The programme finishes with a masterpiece not by Shostakovich, but by his contemporary Alexander Mosolov - a man who would later be the only major composer to be sent to the gulag. Mosolov's Piano Concerto no.1 is like no other in classical music - a bewildering procession of melodies and influences that mirrors the chaotic artistic melting-pot of 1920s Soviet Russia.
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Music Played
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Dmitry Shostakovich
Two Pieces by Scarlatti for wind orchestra, Op.17 (1928)
Performer: USSR Ministry of Culture Symphony Orchestra Soloists' Ensemble / Gennady Rozhdestvensky
- BMG Classics 74321 59058 2 -.
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Dmitry Shostakovich
"The Nose", op.15 (1927-8)[excerpts]
Performer: Interlude (percussion)
- Scene III: Brr! Brr!.
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Dmitry Shostakovich
Act II
Performer: Vladimir Sulisky (Kovalyov), Sergei Skorokhodov (Ivan), Vadim Kravets (newspaper clerk), Sergei Romanov (a countess's servant placing an ad) Performer: Mariinsky Soloists, Opera + Chorus / Valery Gergiev
- MARIINSKY MAR0501.
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Dmitry Shostakovich
Alexander Mosolov: Piano Concerto no.1 (1928)
Performer: Rusudan Khuntsariya (piano) Performer: USSR Symphony Orchestra / Vladimir Kozhukhar
- MELODIYA 74321562632.
Broadcasts
- Wed 2 Feb 201112:00BBC Radio 3
- Wed 2 Feb 201122:00BBC Radio 3
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