Shostakovich was most definitely a light-and-shade composer. On the one hand, we have the intense, expansive orchestral works, full of grand political gestures and complex musical ideas. On the other, ...
You have to like an album that juxtaposes Shostakovich’s bleak and desolate Symphony No. 11 with his charmingly corny arrangement of “Tea for Two.” The liner notes spell out the underlying thinking ...