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UNBELIEVABLE: Shostakovich | History Defined

Shostakovich: Symphonies No 2 and 5 album review – early experiment meets mature power

Conductor John Storgårds pairs Shostakovich’s radical youthful 2nd symphony with the more assured 5th, in performances that emphasise clarity over drama

The Guardian - UK

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Sex, death and parrots: Julian Barnes’s best fiction – ranked!

As the Booker prize-winning author prepares to publish his final novel at 80, we assess his finest work

The Guardian - UK

BBCNOW/ Bancroft/ Gerhardt review – intriguing connections, magic and melancholy beauty

An imaginatively programmed concert featured Anders Hillborg alongside Sibelius and Shostakovich – with Alban Gerhardt the impeccable soloist in the latter’s second cello concerto

The Guardian - UK

Even Happy Birthday has a dark side: my quest to tell the history of the world in 50 pieces of music

The Nazis adopted Beethoven’s Ode to Joy. Happy Birthday hides a tale of corporate greed. And Putin uses Shostakovich’s Leningrad symphony as a call to arms. That’s why I put them in my soundtrack to the complexities of human existence

The Guardian - UK

From shiveringly vivid Mahler to the eclectic Hermes Experiment: our top classical recordings of 2025

Opera may be conspicuous by its absence, but the brilliance of Berlin Philharmonic’s Schoenberg and the exceptional South Korean Yunchan Lim gave us plenty to sink our teeth into this year

The Guardian - UK

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CBSO/Vänskä review – weird brilliance and neurotic tics in a compelling programme

Soprano Helena Juntunen brought Sibelius’ vocal works to dramatic life in a remarkable concert that paired the Finnish composer with late Shostakovich

The Guardian - UK

From One Battle After Another to the Turner prize: your complete entertainment guide to the week ahead

Paul Thomas Anderson takes on Thomas Pynchon in his new film, while Bradford hosts the often controversial annual art contest

The Guardian - UK

Rodion Shchedrin obituary

Russian pianist and composer of startlingly diverse orchestral works, ballet music and operas

The Guardian - UK

Chineke! Orchestra/Heyward review – kaleidoscopic concert combines energy and complexity

The ethnically diverse orchestra played with vigour and spirit in a programme that included Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, Shostakovich and Valerie Coleman

The Guardian - UK

Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District review – semi-staged Shostakovich is vivid and claustrophobic

With Nicky Spence and Amanda Majeski the striking leads, the nastiness in Shostakovich’s ‘tragic satire’ was disturbing and powerful in an impressive Proms performance

The Guardian - UK

BBCNOW/Bancroft/Grosvenor review – from the brilliantly bonkers to heavyweight Shostakovich

Sofia Gubaidulina’s Revue Music for Symphony Orchestra and Jazz Band was an eccentric and joyful delight and Benjamin Grosvenor dazzled in Ravel’s bluesy Piano Concerto in this BBC National Orchestra of Wales prom

The Guardian - UK

Aurora Orchestra/Collon review – high impact and high intensity as Shostakovich’s fifth is brought to life

A blistering performance of Shostakovich’s fifth symphony was preceded by a virtuosic and spectacular dramatic exploration the work that, however, could have had more bite

The Guardian - UK

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The Guardian - UK

Shostakovich: Symphonies Nos 1 & 3; Two Scherzos album review – deft execution of the Russian’s early exuberance

Capturing the momentum of two of Shostakovich’s first Soviet-era symphonies, this performance adds a pair of scherzos that pre-date even them

The Guardian - AU

Piano virtuoso Alexander Gavrylyuk: ‘It is unfortunate to see music as a competition. It is a uniting force’

The pianist will play Shostakovich’s Piano Concerto No 1 and George Gershwin’s joyful Rhapsody in Blue in ‘a masterstroke in programming’ by the ACO

The Guardian - UK

Penarth chamber music festival review – scaled-down Mahler’s Fourth Symphony emerges as if newly minted

The joy and anarchy of Mahler were brilliantly captured, alongside wild Shostakovich and mellow Brahms

Evening Standard

The Best of the 2025 BBC Proms: 20 picks, from Chineke! to Mozart

As the Proms head back to London, another season of music variety beckons. Nick Kimberley picks out the ones worth grabbing tickets for

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The Guardian - UK

Carducci Quartet review – terror and tumult as Shostakovich focus widens

The group were joined by the Elmore, Kyan and Oculus quartets to perform three of Shostakovich’s quartets alongside a newer work by Elena Firsova

The Guardian - UK

RPO/Petrenko review – a blistering, multi-hued Shostakovich

Conductor Vasily Petrenko didn’t put a foot wrong in this Multitudes festival performance of the Leningrad Symphony, the drama enhanced by evocative video imagery by Kirill Serebrennikov and Ilya Shagalov

The Guardian - UK

Oh to Believe in Another World review – Gripping Kentridge and Shostakovich bring Stalin’s age of betrayal to life

The artist’s potent animated film played against a superb live account of the 10th Symphony from Marin Alsop and the Philharmonia Orchestra

The Guardian - UK

BBC announces 2025 Proms lineup – including first female-fronted Last Night

The 86 concerts this summer will include anniversary celebrations of Shostakovich, Ravel and Boulez, a Traitors-themed Prom presented by Claudia Winkleman – and a record number of female conductors

The Guardian - UK

ACO/Tognetti review – a masterclass in chamber music-making

The Australian Chamber Orchestra played with fearlessness, curiosity and style in music by Bach, Shostakovich and, most poignantly, Sofia Gubaidulina, who died earlier this month

The Guardian - UK

Organised Delirium: Piano Sonatas by Boulez, Shostakovich, Bartók and Eisler album review – coruscating and exceptional

Stefanovich brings total mastery, athleticism and power to her recordings of Boulez’s second sonata, and other 20th-century piano works

The Guardian - UK

Commemorating Shostakovich review – vivid and nervy chamber music with Kissin a sensitive voice

Evgeny Kissin, Gidon Kremer, Maxim Rysanov, Giedrė Dirvanauskaitė, and Alexander Roslavets collaborated in a thoughtful and powerful programme of Shostakovich’s chamber music

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