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·     Opera ·     Orchestral Shostakovich: Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk / Rostropovich Composer: Dmitri Shostakovich Conductor: Mstislav Rostropovich Performer: Colin Appleton, David Beavan, et al. Ensemble: Ambrosian Opera Chorus, London Philharmonic Orchestra Emd/Emi Classics - #49955 / February 20, 1990 Click here for more information   Written between 1930 and 1932, The Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk was one of the most brilliant achievements of Shostakovich's long career. It was also the work that got him into trouble with Stalin. When the Soviet leader attended a performance in Moscow in 1936, almost two years after the opera's acclaimed Leningrad premiere, he personally ordered the publication of a scathing article in Pravda ("Muddle Instead of Music"), unleashing a ruthless campaign to reduce the arts in Soviet Russia to a state...Read more Shostakovich: The Nose, The Gamblers / Rozhdestvensky, et al Composer: Dmitri Shostakovich Conductor: Gennady Rozhdestvensky Performer: Eduard Akimov, Nina Anissimova, et al. Ensemble: Moscow Chamber Opera, Leningrad Philharmonic Orchestra Bmg/Melodiya - #60319 / October 13, 1998 Click here for more information Dmitri Shostakovich began to come of age as a composer during the heady period of artistic experimentation following the Revolution, before Stalinist cultural control policies nearly strangled his career. The Nose, his first full-fledged opera, is a remarkable document from that era of creative ferment when the composer joined forces with the likes of the director Meyerhold. Although a success at its 1930 premiere, the opera was essentially banned until the 1970s. This recording is a remastered...Read more

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