A sonata like a novel

The viola sonata is Shostakovich’s swan song, in his own words composed like a novel, full of quotes from earlier work. Ramsey Nasr based his poem Winter Sonata on this masterpiece. Shostakovich composed this work, his last, after his colleague and friend Grigori Frid had played his viola sonata to him: an idiosyncratic piece that will be performed with the sonata for which it was a spark of inspiration. Shostakovich based the final adagio of his sonata on Beethoven’s Mondschein Sonata which is also on the programme.

The violist Dana Zemtsov performs as a soloist with leading orchestras. She shares the stage with her regular duo partner: the beloved concert pianist Anna Fedorova. For Channel Classics, they recorded the duo CD Silhouettes, which received praise for its “seamless interplay” and “refined phrasing” (four stars in de Volkskrant).