Join Tenebrae, Julia Fischer, Mamimilian Hornung and Daumants Liepinš for an evening of ‘melancholy and dances of death’.

In the midst of the Second World War, Shostakovich’s close friend, the cultural and literary scholar Ivan Solletinsky, died unexpectedly. They had first met in 1921, when Shostakovich was fifteen years old, and their friendship began five years later, fueled by their shared fascination with the music of Mahler in particular. At their meetings, they drank vast quantities of strong tea or talked on the phone for hours. When Solletinsky died unexpectedly of a heart attack during an emergency evacuation in Novosibirsk, Shostakovich wrote to Solletinsky’s widow: “He was my closest and dearest friend. I owe my entire development to him. Living without him will be unimaginably difficult.”

Several days before Shostakovich completed the first movement of his Piano Trio No.2 in E Minor, composed as a protest against Soviet totalitarianism, Solletinsky died. Shostakovich then decided to dedicate the trio to his dear friend’s memory. The trio culminates in the sinister ‘Dance of Death’ – a movement which begins with a sense of foreboding and gathers momentum to a frenzied climax, wrought with emotion.

Tenebrae’s contribution of Russian songs by Sergei Rachmaninoff, Nikolai Golovanov, Pavel Chesnokov, and Peter I. Tchaikovsky serve as a melancholic commentary within the programme.

Photo credit: Lund Choral Festival and Jonas Persson

Programme

Dmitri Shostakovich
Trio in E minor for violin, violoncello and piano, Op. 67
works for choir by Sergei Rachmaninoff, Nikolay Golovanov, Pavel Chesnokov, Peter I. Tchaikovsky

Artist Information

Tenebrae Choir
Nigel Short: Conductor
Julia Fischer: Violin
Maximilian Hornung: Violoncello
Daumants Liepinš: Piano

Artist(s)

Tenebrae