• Tracks

Without realizing it, Shostakovich had opened new musical horizons that he became aware of shortly before his death. He had given the pianist Victor Derevianko a golden opportunity, and that applied to all future ensembles that engaged in their specific ways with the 15th symphony. He saw that it worked out well. For decades, smaller ensembles would pick up and use this score, just as recently a group assembled by the catalan composer, pianist and conductor Oriol Cruixent. The group around Oriol Cruixent, pianist of this album, with violinist Kolja Blacher, cellist Jens-Peter Maintz and percussionists Claudio Estay, Raymond Curfs and Mark Haeldermans has ample performing experience with Deverianko's transcription. They also used his approach when they arranged, based on original material from Shostakovich, an eight-part suite for their ensemble, a music that directly reflects the cinema, the circus and the music halls.