Dmitri Shostakovich: Piano Sonata No.2, Op.61; Frank Bridge: Piano Sonata, H.160
The piano sonatas of Dmitri Shostakovich and Frank Bridge were created while the world was in turmoil.\n \nAfter his evacuation from besieged Leningrad, Shostakovich seemed to be holding on to sanity through frenzied composing. He wrote his Piano Sonata quickly between the 7th and the 8th Symphonies, and premiered it himself in Moscow soon thereafter. In the late 1930s his avant garde music had met with Stalinist disapproval, but by 1943 the Sonata’s Neo\-classical clarity was beyond reproach.\n \nTwenty years earlier Bridge was grappling with a changing world and growing dissatisfied with his pleasing late\-Romantic style. In the aftermath of the First World War he spent three years completing only one work, his Piano Sonata. It was premiered in London in 1925 by Dame Myra Hess. Passionate and complex, Bridge\x27s new music estranged him from both the once\-adoring public and the musical establishment.\n \nThere was no direct connection between Shostakovich and Bridge. In the 1960s Shostakovich met composer Benjamin Britten and the two remained life\-long friends. Through this friendship Shostakovich may have come to know of Bridge, who was Britten\x27s composition teacher and mentor.\n \nIn spite of their different circumstances, the two Sonatas comprising this album share their creators\x27 masterful handling of form and texture, and use of the iconic Waltz and March. While both Shostakovich and Bridge composed other pieces which dealt more explicitly with loss, their Piano Sonatas, inscribed to the memory of friends lost to war, offer somber reflections on troubling times.\n \n \nFollowing her London debut at Wigmore Hall, Israeli\-born pianist Sally Pinkas has garnered universal acclaim for her performances as soloist and chamber musician. Among highlights are performances with the Boston Pops, the Aspen Philharmonia and New York\x27s Jupiter Symphony, at the festivals of Marlboro, Tanglewood and Rockport in the United States, Pontlevoy in France, Havana in Cuba and Ho Chi Minh Music Conservatory in Vietnam. From a first\-ever performance of Beethoven\x27s Emperor Concerto in Bandung, Indonesia, to premieres of George Rochberg\x27s monumental Circles of Fire for two pianos in Russia and Nigeria, and a revival of rarely heard 19th\-century Filipino Salon Music in its birth city Manila, Pinkas commands a wide repertoire and shares it enthusiastically with young pianists through master classes and workshops. Praised for her radiant tone and driving energy, Pinkas\x27 extensive discography includes music by Mozart, Schumann, Fauré, Debussy, Gaubert, Martinu, Rochberg, Pinkham and Wolff for the MSR Classics, Musica Omnia, Centaur, Naxos, Toccata Classics, Arsis and Mode labels. She tours regularly with the Hirsch\-Pinkas Duo (a collaboration with her husband pianist Evan Hirsch), with Ensemble Schumann and with the Adaskin String Trio. Other collaborators include the Apple Hill Quartet, Cuarteto Latinoamericano and the UK\x27s Villiers Quartet. Most recently she made her solo debut in Spain, returned to Brazil with the Hirsch\-Pinkas Duo and to China on an extensive tour with Ensemble Schumann. Pinkas holds performance degrees from Indiana University and the New England Conservatory of Music, and a Doctorate in Composition from Brandeis University. Her piano teachers were Russell Sherman, George Sebok, Luise Vosgerchian, Ilona Vincze\-Krausz and Genia Bar\-Niv. She also studied composition under Sergiu Natra and chamber music under Robert Koff. Pianist\-in\-residence at the Hopkins Center at Dartmouth College, Pinkas is Professor of Music at Dartmouth\x27s Music Department.
Sally Pinkas (piano)  (Artist),     Dmitri Shostakovich  (Composer),     Frank Bridge  (Composer),     None  (Conductor)    &                   1                  more   Format: Audio CD
{"Item Weight": "3.21 Ounces", "Manufacturer": "MSR Classics", "Date First Available": "June 1, 2021", "Label": "MSR Classics", "Number of discs": "1"}