41. Candlelit Late Night
Shostakovich lived through a time when it was dangerous to be part of the intelligentsia, particularly if you were too popular and came to the attention of Stalin. After Stalin Shostakovich’s life was no longer in danger, there was just the dead hand of a sclerotic system to outwit enlivened by a group of exceptionally outstanding musicians. The Seven Blok songs were premiered by Rostropovich, Oistrakh, Weinberg and the great soprano Vishnevskaya. They had been commissioned by Rostropovich for himself and Vishnevskaya, but let Shostakovich take up the tale: ‘Slava, you understand, you see, I wanted to satisfy your request – I found some suitable texts to set and I wrote the first song as you wanted for voice and cello. But then I started the second song with a whacking great pizzicato on the cello, and I realised that I didn’t have sufficient instruments to continue, so I added the violin and piano’ This series of dark midnight Romances concludes with a mystical and impassioned hymn that puts Music at the centre of the universe and tells of the sacrifices that must be made..
