Prokofiev: Violin Sonata No. 1 in F Minor, Op. 80 / Shostakovich: Violin Sonata in G Major, Op. 134

Album review

This recording took place in the Studio 2 of the Bayerischer Rundfunk in Munich, in February 2016. Dina Ugorskaja pursued the finishing process of the master with great impulse and unbelievable energy during a time when her health was abating. This project will stay simply as a singular milestone.
Prokofiev and Shostakovich were ambivalent toward one another. Prokofiev accused Shostakovich of "devouring everything" (the fact that the younger composer dared to incorporate the street genres of entertainment music into his classical compositions) and affirmed that Shostakovich had no gift for melody. Shostakovich, for his part, occasionally found Prokofiev's music too crude, too clearly illustrative. Yet, in spite of the largely unfair criticism they directed toward one another, each one never let his counterpart entirely out of his sight, or, to be more exact, of his ears. Ever since the 1920s their music was featured on joint recital programmes. The young Shostakovich acknowledged Prokofiev's influence on certain of his own works. Prokofiev, when abroad, encouraged "chemical exchange between Russia and Europe" and promoted Shostakovich's works in particular, even expressing the wish that his younger colleague be allowed to perform abroad, too. Natalia Prishepenko and the late Dina Ugorskaja present stunningly personal and virtuosic performances of two of their violin sonatas. © CAvi-Music