Ilya Gringolts (violin), Daniel Haefliger (cello), Gilles Vonsattel (piano)

Shostakovich: Piano Trio No. 1 in C minor, Op. 8
Shostakovich: Piano Trio No. 2 in E minor, Op. 67
Shostakovich: Violin Sonata, Op. 134

In July 1917, during a demonstration in Petrograd, a boy was killed by the Tsarist forces before the young Dmitri Shostakovich’s very eyes. Deeply shocked, Shostakovich thereupon composed a Funeral March in remembrance of the victims of the Revolution. He would then live through World War I, the October Revolution, the civil war, Stalin’s Great Purge, World War II, and new purges, among others. Violence, despair, tyranny and death are omnipresent in his existence and appear in his music. The three works chosen by Ilya Gringolts, Daniel Haefliger and Gilles Vonsattel for this recording pay tribute to this entire experience, coming from the composer’s youth, his mature years, and his final period.