Stravinsky:
Divertimento

Shostakovich:
Sonata for violin and piano, Op. 134

The Divertimento for violin and piano by Igor Stravinsky, written in 1932 as an arrangement of his ballet Le Baiser de la Fée, and the sonata for violin and piano by Dmitri Shostakovich, composed in 1968 on the occasion of David Oistrakh's 60th birthday, could hardly be more disparate: Stravinsky's work is a spirited homage to Tchaikovsky, based on songs and piano pieces by that composer, whereas the Shostakovich is a profound and mysterious contribution to the genre of the violin sonata. Both works, however, share a preference for an allegorical and deeply mysterious idiom and symbolism which, in Stravinsky's case, results in brilliant, but also cool, "music on music", whereas Shostakovich's piece appears as a form of internal biography. For interpreters performing both pieces for one disc or in the same concert, one of the main challenges and attractions of this combination lies in tracing the cultural, musical and political experiences and values shared by both composers. In this performance, Judith Ingolfsson and Vladimir Stoupel have accomplished that task with mastery.