Chamber Music Society of Linc Ctr, Feb 1 2026

Barbara and I heard the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center an all-Shostakovich program on Feb 1, 2026. I’ve always loved Shostakovich and clearly need to do a deeper exploration of his music. This was all new music to me and it knocked me out.

The first piece was the one I thought I knew - - a Shostakovich piano trio. It turns out it wasn’t the famous trio but an early trio, written when he was sixteen! It had many of the distinguishing characteristics of a Shostakovich piece: the parody of schmaltzy parlor music, moments of brittle modernity, and a sure sense of pacing and drama. The piece opens with the cello and piano playing a fragrant bit that oozes Old World charm. This develops into something more thorny. There’s a slight break and the cello and piano come back in with the fragrant Old World music. This develops into something tart, then acerbic, eventually violent. Another break and guess what? Another appearance of the fragrant Old World music. I fell for it every time and chuckled quietly to myself. It was played by the Sitkovetsky Trio: Wu Qian on piano, Alexander Sitkovetsky on violin, and Isang Enders on cello. They played it with delicacy and fervor.

The trio was joined by soprano Andriana Chuchman for the *Seven Romances on Poems of Alexander Blok.* Somewhere I have a recording with the people who had commissioned it, soprano Galina Vishnevskaya and her husband, cellist Mstislav Rostropovich. The violinist and pianist on the recording were different from the premiere so I won’t mention them (you can look it up on Wikipedia if you really want to know). The piece has an unusual structure - - there are seven songs and each uses a different combination of instruments. The first is for voice and cello, the second voice and piano, the third voice and violin, then combinations of the three instruments. All three instruments play together in the final movement.

I’d describe this piece as more intellectually stimulating than musically gratifying. The trio played with their signature suave swagger. Chuchman has a beautiful dark color to her voice, reminiscent of of Vishnevskaya, actually. I wasn’t always totally convinced by her intonation - - a few times I thought, “Is that an octave of a major seventh?” Not a question you want to ask. Most troubling of all, there were two moments in the performance, between movements where she stepped to the side and had a drink of water. That’s amateur hour. If you need two gulps of water during a 25-minute piece, either you don’t know what you’re doing or you’re singing the wrong piece. Or both.

Here are Vishkevskaya and Rostopovich performing the first song in the cycle:

The second half was a special chamber arrangement of Shostakovich’s last symphony, the 15th, an arrangement by Victor Derevianko approved by the composer. This was the Chamber Music Society premiere of the piece. I’d never heard it, I honestly haven’t heard any of the Shostakovich symphonies. I’m slapping my wrist, I really need to explore the symphonic repertoire.

Oh my Lord this piece knocked me out, really and truly one of the most exciting pieces of chamber music I’ve ever heard. It’s scored for violin, cello, piano (doubling on celesta), and three percussionists playing a whole battery of instruments. The performers were Inon Barnatan on piano and celesta, Paul Huang on violin, Jonathan Swensen on cello, and Victor Caccese, Ayano Kataoka, and Ian Rosenbaum on percussion. They were all tremendous.

The first movement was a delightful grab bag of moments - - the standouts are an occasional DING! from one of the percussionists, a sequence of rhythmic anarchy by the strings and piano, brought into line by the snare drum, and a few appearances by the famous “Lone Ranger” theme from the William Tell Overture.

The second movement opened with a murky solo by the piano, then a long aching three- or four-bar phrase from the cello, going from very low to very high. It was a passionate expression of love and/or grief, just the kind of thing that would find its fullest expression when played by my friend Parry Karp. The violin, cello, and piano started this movement and played for a while. The percussionists were seated. Then they all stood up and one of them (a small Asian-American woman in a black and red dress, the only woman of the six performers) was holding two cymbals, waiting for her moment. Such suspense! Another similar moment happened later with her posed in front of the gong.

A few other highlights of the piece. There was a quote from *The Ring* - - I wasn’t quite sure the first time I heard it but after a few times I was damn sure. Also maybe a quasi Tristan moment...? The violin and cello worked themselves into quite a froth in the final movement. There were a few bits that had the pianist playing the piano with his right hand and the celesta with his left hand, that was impressive and fun to watch. The piece had a quiet ending which if anything gave it a bigger impact. The audience went NUTTY.

Here's a recent performance of the piece:

PS: I said above that the chamber arrangement of the symphony was one of the most exciting pieces of chamber music I’d ever heard. The other pieces are:

Chausson concert (1891)

Tchaikovsky piano trio (1882)

Webern reduction of the Schönberg chamber symphony (1923)

Bartók string quartet #4 (1928)

Messaien *Quartet for the End of Time* (1941)

I say “most exciting” but it could double as a list of my favorite pieces of chamber music - - though in that case I would also add the Franck violin sonata (1886). It’s a piece that isn’t exactly exciting but it’s exceptionally beautiful, especially the last movement.