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Track(s) taken from CDA67274

Sonnet 66, Op 62 No 5

composer
Dmitri Shostakovich (1906-1975)
1942
author of text
William Shakespeare (1564-1616)
translator of text
Boris Pasternak (1890-1960)

Vassily Savenko (bass), Alexander Blok (piano)
Recording details: September 2000
Studio 1, The State House of Broadcasting and Audio-Recording, Moscow, Russia
Produced by Alexander Volkov
Engineered by Alexander Volkov
Release date: September 2001
Total duration: 2 minutes 42 seconds
 

Reviews

‘Russian composers have set many English poems to music, and here we have some of the best’ (Classic FM Magazine)

‘Even more impressive than their two previous collections … a CD that merits a very strong recommendation’ (Fanfare, USA)
The setting of Sonnet 66, dedicated to the musicologist Ivan Sollertinsky, is of a translation by Boris Pasternak, the author of Doctor Zhivago. The sombre mood of the sonnet is perfectly matched by Shostakovich's stem and unyielding gravity and the work clearly meant a great deal to him, as he later arranged it for soloist and small orchestra. Giving it a new opus number.

from notes by Edward Morgan © 2001

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