Chamber Series – Shostakovich’s Piano Quintet

Alexander Gadjiev, the latest Terence Judd-Hallé Award recipient, joins Hallé string players in Shostakovich’s Piano Quintet, composed two years after his Fifth Symphony. Performed this season by the Hallé on 16 February at The Bridgewater Hall, the Fifth Symphony had largely got Shostakovich off the hook from the savage press attacks on him, so much so that the Quintet won him the Stalin prize. It was composed for him to perform with his friends from the Beethoven Quartet. With glances backwards to Bach and late Romantic composers, the Quintet rapidly became a 20th century classic.