Fedosejev, Gruber, Zilberstein / Shostakovich by Shostakovich, Alkaen (2019/2019), Musiikinjohto Vladimir Fedoseyev, Musikverein, Vienna, Austria

In his First Piano Concerto, Dmitri Shostakovich, with a twinkle in his eyes, processed some musical quotes of great masters, such as Beethoven, Liszt and Haydn. Lilya Zilberstein and Andreas Gruber,the orchestra's principal trumpet, as the soloists will be accompanied by the Wiener Symphoniker under the direction of its former conductor Vladimir Fedoseyev. Even Shostakovich’s late work, such as his Symphony No. 15, is peppered with musical references, for instance, to Rossini, Wagner and own compositions. “Whenever the audience smiles or even laughs during the performance of my works, this always gives me great satisfaction”, Shostakovich once said. His circus music called Hypothetically Murdered, written in 1931, which involved water nymphs, dancing dogs and blasphemous apostles on stage, even created a huge scandal during the premiere at the then Leningrad Philharmonia. Then, in politically dangerous times, the respective score disappeared until, in 1991, Gerard McBurney was able to retrieve and reconstruct a part of the musical sketches, even very much in the spirit of the humorous Shostakovich.