Evgeny Kissin | Gidon Kremer | Maxim Rysanov | Gautier Capuçon | Shostakovich by Shostakovich, Ó (2025/2025), Théâtre des Champs-Elysées, Paris, France

To celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the death of Shostakovich, three highly-reputed soloists are gathering around the piano of Evgeni Kissin. Although the Russian composer was a lifelong pianist, he wrote very little music for this instrument, and in contrast to his dense catalogue of symphonies and quartets, there are only a few opuses showcasing the art of two-instrument sonatas. They are seldom performed in concert, but all require players of the highest calibre. Opus 40 for cello and piano dates from 1934 and is the first major work composed by the young Shostakovich, who was 28 and still in thrall to the memory of Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninov. The next two pieces on tonight’s programme date from the composer’s twilight years. Opus 134 for violin and piano (1968) is dedicated to his friend the violinist David Oïstrakh and moves towards a very dark climax reflecting, as has been pointed out by numerous critics, the composer’s many hospital admissions at the time. Lastly, we have Opus 147 for viola and piano, which was written in July 1975, shortly before the composer’s death a month later. This is a melancholic, sombre work with many borrowings not only from his own earlier works, but also from Berg, Beethoven, and once again from Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninov. This is literally a masterpiece for the end of life, when all is stripped back to the bare essentials.