4Nov
The last sound Shostakovich wanted to hear
Rudolf Barshai, who has died at his Swiss home, aged 86, was the best viola player in Russia. He had a long friendship with Dmitri Shostakovich, who called him one day in the summer of 1975 with technical questions about the instrument. When Barshai asked what he was composing, Shostakovich replied ‘a sonata, for you’. […]
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