Violinist Alina Ibragimova is the soloist in the two concertos by Dmitry Shostakovich.
Composers:
Works:
- Shostakovich: Violin Concerto No. 1 in A minor, Op. 99
- Shostakovich: Violin Concerto No. 2 in C sharp minor, Op. 129
Conductors:
Composed almost 20 years apart, the two violin concertos by Dmitri Shostakovich were both conceived with the great violinist David Oistrakh in mind and dedicated to him. Shostakovich completed Concerto No. 1 in 1948, at a time when he had fallen out of grace with the Soviet authorities and it seemed uncertain if the work would ever be performed in public. This is reflected in the concerto which begins with a dark and solitary violin song over gloomy cellos and double basses.
In 1967 Shostakovich wrote to Oistrakh, telling him about the completion of his Violin Concerto No. 2. The composer’s health had been failing for several years, and only the year before he had suffered a heart attack. In several of his late works there is a preoccupation with mortality, and the concerto exhibits a similar dark, introspective tone, especially in the central Adagio.
Performing these two great works of the mid-20th century is one of the finest violinists of our time, Ms. Alina Ibragimova.
Here is violinist Nicola Benedetti performing the Violin Concerto #1 by Dmitry Shostakovich:
