Shostakovich III
For this three-concert mini-festival, SummerFest Music Director Cho-Liang Lin has assembled an ensemble of extraordinary instrumentalists, some of whom knew and worked with Shostakovich himself. Working together over the past year, these artists have selected works that represent the composer’s mastery in many forms: string quartets, sonatas for violin, viola, cello and piano as well as trios and octets, showcasing vividly contrasting moods, now whimsical and witty, now intensely emotional then self-questioning. This third and final performance opens with one of the later quartets, the two-movement String Quartet No. 12 in D-flat Major. The lyrical yet dazzling Cello Sonata in D Minor follows and our mini-festival concludes with the Piano Trio No. 2 in E Minor performed by three Shostakovich aficionados, Vladimir Feltsman, piano, Dimity Sitkovetsky, violin and John Sharp, cello.