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A chamber programme of Shostakovich’s private idioms and public masks

Two larger than life piano quintets share star billing on an intense Wigmore Hall programme. 

Steven Osborne and players from Aurora Orchestra take our emotions in opposite directions at Kings Place.

Like all great quartets, each member contributed their individual voice but, in the combination of all four, they created something extraordinary and compelling.

There was a palpable sense of communion during a performance bringing these great musicians together at Carnegie Hall for the first time. 

Britten and Shostakovich were great friends, so it was appropriate that both composers were represented in the Belcea Quartet's two recitals on the opening weekend of the 70th Aldeburgh Festival. 

Traditional August Bank Holiday weather – steady rain – was reflected in the melancholy programme for this lunchtime Chamber Prom.

Like much of Shostakovich’s work, his popular Piano Quintet, Op. 57 (1940) is full of ambiguity and contradiction. It was written at the request of his friends in the Beethoven Quartet, who had so enjoyed his first string quartet that they asked him to write something new that they could play with him – but this private piece of chamber music was a huge public success.

Each time I hear the Takács Quartet in concert a new excellence comes through: this time it is their gentleness. Schubert’s String Quartet in A minor, “Rosamunde” is allowed to unfold gently, as the petals of a rose open themselves.