Dmitry Skobelev Photography

If one function of art is to make us ponder difficult questions and thus risk causing offence, there could not be a more potent example than Shostakovich’s 13th Symphony. Setting Babi Yar, Yevtushenko’s blistering denunciation of Soviet antisemitism, in the 1960s was an act of political defiance for the composer. First heard in this country in Liverpool, it is highly appropriate that it forms the conclusion and climax of the RLPO’s riveting Shostakovich cycle. The power this performance accumulates at the climaxes of the second and third movement is lacerating; the men’s choruses may not sound totally Russian, but Alexander Vinogradov is a superb bass soloist, and Vasily Petrenko is as good at gloomy introspection as he is at brittle confrontation.

Russian violinist Dmitry Smirnov's début recording on FHR features works by master baroque composer J. S. Bach, a leading figure of 20th century music Béla Bartók and a wonderful newly discovered work by influencial mid-twentieth Swiss violinist Hansheinz Schneeberger who died in 2019. The Schneeberger 'Sonata', written two years before Bartok's 'Sonata', is a violin show piece, displaying much imagination in its idiomatic and virtoustic violin writing this is the first recording of the work. There are many connections that link these three works together the Bartok and Schneeberger sonatas show influences of Bach. Also, Bartok's 'First Violin Concerto' was premièred by Schneeberger.

This disc opens with the seldom-heard Variations on a Russian Theme that five composers wrote to honor the conductor Nikolai Galkin. It is an attractive theme that is wittily scored by the five. Only Sokolov took the task seriously, but all five provided a rousing work.