It was 100 years ago that Dmitri Shostakovich, as a young music student at the St. Petersburg Conservatory, completed his First Symphony. He finished the work in April 1925, and did not turn 19 years ...

Guest French conductor Alexandre Bloch conducted the concerto without a baton, sculpting the orchestra’s sound with his hands.  Read more at straitstimes.com. Read more at straitstimes.com.

Many years ago, a relative of mine used the term "music-intense" in conversation to describe a musician we both knew. I think it's also an apt descriptor for BBC music broadcaster Stephen Johnson. His ...

Dmitri Shostakovich became one of the Soviet Union’s most famous composers while living under the constant threat of Stalin’s ...

Dmitri Shostakovich lived and composed during one of the most dangerous periods in Soviet history as Stalin’s regime used ...

After composing an operatic adaptation of “Macbeth” that displeased Stalin, the Russian composer Dmitri Shostakovich told a friend: “Even if they cut off both my hands, I shall continue to write music ...

Evgeny Kissin, Gidon Kremer, Maxim Rysanov, Giedrė Dirvanauskaitė and Alexander Roslavets collaborated in a thoughtful and powerful programme of Shostakovich’s chamber music In the 50 years since his ...

Is there any evidence that Shostakovich really was a Soviet dissident? During Shostakovich’s lifetime (1906–1975) the idea of his being a dissident was never really seriously mooted; passing ...

Pairing Stevenson’s Passacaglia on DSCH with Shostakovich’s equally epic 24 Preludes is a unique combination of rarity and virtuosity Two years ago, Igor Levit devoted a recital at the Wigmore Hall to ...

When guns speak, the muses keep silent, says an old Russian proverb. Last winter, as he listened to the roar of German artillery and watched the sputtering of German incendiaries from the roof of ...

Many years ago, a relative of mine used the term "music-intense" in conversation to describe a musician we both knew. I think it's also an apt descriptor for BBC music broadcaster Stephen Johnson. His ...