As part of the commemorations surrounding the 50th anniversary of the death of Shostakovich, Deutsche Grammophon is releasing Shostakovich Discoveries, an album of world premiere recordings and previously unreleased rarities. The recordings were made during and in cooperation with the Internationale Schostakowitsch Tage Gohrisch – the only annual international Shostakovich festival – which takes place each June in the German state of Saxony. Shostakovich Discoveries will be released on 23 May 2025, and the third of the 3 Fugues for Piano is available now to stream/download.

Dmitri Shostakovich was one of the most complex musical figures of the 20th century. His life in Soviet Russia was marked by both state oppression and official recognition and, in attempting to navigate safely between these two extremes, he often wove hidden messages into his music. The spa resort of Gohrisch, where he wrote his String Quartet No. 8 in C minor in 1960, has hosted the International Shostakovich Festival since 2010. Working closely with the composer’s widow, Irina Shostakovich, and musicologist Dr Olga Digonskaya, the Festival has unearthed numerous long-lost compositions – from early works written by a teenage Shostakovich to masterpieces of his maturity.

“I’m very grateful to the organisers of the International Shostakovich Festival Gohrisch for premiering previously unperformed music by Dmitri Dmitriyevich Shostakovich,” says Irina Shostakovich. “These works were found by musicologist Olga Digonskaya and have been published by DSCH Publishers, Moscow. Now, to mark the 50th anniversary of his death, Deutsche Grammophon is releasing this album of unknown works by Shostakovich. I’m sure it will be hugely and deservedly popular with all those who love his music.”

Highlights of Shostakovich Discoveries include the 1948 satirical cantata Anti-Formalist Rayok, performed by bass Alexei Mochalov and Kremerata Baltica. Written as a response to Shostakovich’s second public condemnation by the Soviet regime, it went straight into the composer’s desk drawer and was never performed during his lifetime. Its premiere finally took place in 1989, conducted in Washington DC by Mstislav Rostropovich. Gidon Kremer, founder and artistic director of Kremerata Baltica, takes the lead in the 5 Pieces for Two Violins and Piano, arranged by Levon Atovmyan in 1961 – with the composer’s express approval – from some of his film and ballet scores. The brief Impromptu for Viola and Piano featuring violist Nils Mönkemeyer is an occasional piece which was written for a violist friend of Shostakovich’s in 1931 and whose manuscript was only rediscovered in 2017.

The three fragments from The Nose, in which Thomas Sanderling conducts the Staatskapelle Dresden, are of particular significance. These intricately conceived orchestral preludes and interludes were not included in the final version of the opera (1930). Irina Shostakovich personally entrusted them to Sanderling, who premiered the trio of works in Gohrisch in 2017. Among the solo piano works masterfully interpreted on the album are the early Scherzo, Op. 1a, and the 3 Fugues, performed by DG artist Daniil Trifonov, and the Prelude & Fugue in C sharp minor (completed by Krzysztof Meyer) and the miniature Murzilka, played by Yulianna Avdeeva. Daniel Ciobanu played the piano piece Im Wald in Gohrisch, which the 13-year-old Shostakovich composed in 1919.

Another key work included here is Shostakovich’s setting for bass and piano of the poem Yelabuga Nail, which deals with the tragic death of the poet Marina Tsvetaeva. Having come to light only in 2023, it has been completed by Alexander Raskatov. In his view, this late work, “a grand, dramatic ballad”, anticipates Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 15 – Olga Digonskaya agrees, calling it a kind of “creative laboratory” for the symphony. While the concert premiere of Yelabuga Nail will be given by Alexander Roslavets and Andrei Korobeinikov in Gohrisch on 28 June 2025, the same artists’ world premiere recording can be heard on Shostakovich Discoveries.

“During Shostakovich’s lifetime, the idea that any work of his might be premiered outside the USSR was inconceivable,” notes Tobias Niederschlag, Artistic Director of the International Shostakovich Festival Gohrisch. “The composer himself had no say in this – he was subject to the strict regulations of Soviet cultural policy. We are therefore particularly delighted to have been able to premiere several previously unknown Shostakovich works at Gohrisch in recent years. And of course we’re immensely grateful to Irina Shostakovich and Olga Digonskaya for making this possible! Now, thanks to this Deutsche Grammophon album, these pieces will reach a wider audience and bring further nuances to the image of a composer who still has an air of mystery about him, even 50 years after his death.”

“Witnessing Daniil Trifonov and Yulianna Avdeeva give the world premieres of several Shostakovich piano works during the pandemic was an electrifying experience,” adds Dr Clemens Trautmann, President Deutsche Grammophon and New Business Strategy. “Working closely with the International Shostakovich Festival Gohrisch and Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk (MDR), DG was able to livestream this programme to audiences worldwide. We’re thrilled that their interpretations, along with other musically significant performances and illuminating first recordings of Shostakovich scores are now all available on one album. Shostakovich Discoveries is the latest addition to the impressive and successful series of world premiere recordings recently issued by Deutsche Grammophon, which also features newly rediscovered works by Mozart and Chopin.”

May 2025
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At the heart of the International Shostakovich Days Gohrisch: The 8th String Quartet
In 2025, the International Shostakovich Days Gohrisch will mark the 50th anniversary of Dmitri Shostakovich's death († 9 August 1975). The 16th edition of the festival, which will take place from 26 to 29 June 2025 in the resort municipality of Gohrisch, will therefore feature key compositions by Shostakovich, including his 8th String Quartet in C minor op. 110, which he composed in Gohrisch in July 1960. It forms the cornerstones of this year's programme: it will be performed in the opening concert (26 June, 7.30 p.m.) by principals of the Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden, and in the version for string orchestra by Rudolf Barschai in a performance matinee by the Sächsische Staatskapelle – the partner orchestra of the Shostakovich Days - on the last day of the festival (29 June, 11 a.m.).

‘In this commemorative year, we want to focus in particular on the 8th String Quartet,’ explains Artistic Director Tobias Niederschlag. ‘It is a composition that summarises Shostakovich's biography in a burning mirror, an autobiographical legacy. Both versions in one festival year, the original version and the arrangement by Rudolf Barschai, have so far only been performed at our very first festival in 2010. At that time, Barschai wanted to conduct the ‘Chamber Symphony’ op. 110a himself in Gohrisch, but had to cancel his participation at short notice for health reasons‘.

Shostakovich's role models ...
In addition to works by the composer who gave the festival its name, the festival is also looking at his role models in this commemorative year. Yulianna Avdeeva will perform a piano matinee with works by Shostakovich and Frédéric Chopin (28 June, 11 a.m.). ‘Shostakovich was an outstanding pianist,’ says the pianist. ‘In 1927, he took part in the first Chopin Competition in Warsaw, but did not win a prize, only a diploma. This contributed to the fact that from then on he devoted himself more to composing than to the piano. However, Chopin's influence on the young Shostakovich can be considered quite significant.’ In her matinee, Avdeeva will juxtapose a selection from Shostakovich's 24 Preludes and Fugues op. 87 with Chopin's cycle of 24 Preludes.

Bach was a great idol for Shostakovich throughout his life. During his visit to Leipzig in 1950, he confessed: ‘Johann Sebastian Bach, the genius of music, is one of my favourite composers. I play Bach every day.’ Based on the ‘Well-Tempered Clavier’, he wrote his own cycle Opus 87 after his Leipzig experience. Bassist Alexander Roslavets and pianist Andrei Korobeinikov will juxtapose Shostakovich's song works with excerpts from Bach's ‘Well-Tempered Clavier’ in the concert barn (28 June, 7.30 pm).

Another important focus for Shostakovich was Ludwig van Beethoven; a bust of Beethoven dominated everything in his Moscow study. In the final concert (29 June, 3 p.m.), the Quatuor Danel will perform a Beethoven-Shostakovich programme under special circumstances: ‘We are combining Beethoven's 15th string quartet, his Opus 132, with Shostakovich's 15th and last quartet,’ says leader Marc Danel. ‘This combination was often played by the old Borodin Quartet, whose legendary cellist Valentin Berlinsky would have been 100 years old this year.’ This concert therefore not only honours Shostakovich, but also the Borodin Quartet and Berlinsky, who were important mentors for the members of Quatuor Danel in their early days.

... and composers supported by Shostakovich
Two of the orchestra concerts will also be focusing on composers supported by Shostakovich. At the guest performance by the Kremerata Baltica under the direction of Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla (27 June, 7.30 pm), Shostakovich's 14th Symphony will be juxtaposed with works by Mieczysław Weinberg.The music of this close friend of Shostakovich has only been discovered in recent years - including at the Shostakovich Days, where some of his compositions were first performed or premiered. The conductor Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla is particularly passionate about Weinberg. Last summer, she conducted an enthusiastically received new production of his opera ‘The Idiot’ at the Salzburg Festival with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra.

At the performance matinee (29 June, 11 a.m.) the Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden features - alongside the Chamber Symphony - the work of a favourite student of Shostakovich: Dmitri Jurowski conducts the opera ‘Rothschild's Violin’ by Benjamin Fleischmann, who was 28 when he died on the front line of the Leningrad Blockade in 1941 and left the work unfinished. Shostakovich completed and orchestrated the one-act opera based on the novella by Anton Chekhov. For the concert performance matinee in Gohrisch, Dmitri Jurowski created a version for chamber orchestra and produced a new German translation, which will be presented for the first time with an excellent cast (Marek Kalbus, Thorsten Büttner, Jürgen Müller, Irina Papenbrock).

First-time participant in Gohrisch and 477-year-old prizewinner
In addition to the performance matinee, members of the Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden will perform two programmes dedicated exclusively to Shostakovich: the opening concert (with Matthias Wollong, Holger Grohs, Sebastian Herberg and Sebastian Fritsch), which includes the Piano Quintet as well as the 8th String Quartet. There will also be a musical recital with actor Ulrich Noethen (‘Comedian Harmonists’, ‘Charité’, ‘Wendland’), who will be performing in the concert barn for the first time (28 June, 3 pm). He will read from the fictional Shostakovich novel ‘The Noise of Time’ by Julian Barnes, accompanied by the 2nd Piano Trio with Yuki Manuela Janke, Friedrich Thiele and pianist Onutė Gražinytė, who already takes on the piano part in Shostakovich's Quintet op. 57 in the opening concert.

The musicians of the Sächsische Staatskapelle have been the most important artistic partners of the Shostakovich Festival since its inception in 2010. Founded in 1548 and now 477 years old, the traditional orchestra played a key role in the creation of the festival and has been involved in the realisation of the festival continuously and with great commitment ever since. In recognition and gratitude for its contribution, the Staatskapelle will be honoured with the 16th International Shostakovich Prize Gohrisch during the performance matinee.

On the eve of the Shostakovich Days (25 June, 8 pm), the orchestra will once again perform a special concert in Dresden's Kulturpalast. This will include performances of both of Shostakovich's piano concertos with pianist Kirill Gerstein and trumpeter Helmut Fuchs under the direction of Marie Jacquot.

Posthumous Shostakovich world premiere
In recent years, the Shostakovich Days have repeatedly attracted attention with late premieres of Shostakovich's compositions. In 2025, one of his previously unknown works will be heard in public for the first time in the concert barn: the romance ‘The Nail of Yelabuga’ for bass and piano, a fragment discovered by leading Shostakovich researcher Olga Digonskaya in 2019 and completed by Alexander Raskatov on behalf of the Shostakovich Days. The composition is based on a poem by Yevgeny Yevtushenko, which thematises the death of the poet Marina Tsvetaeva, who committed suicide by hanging herself in Yelabuga in 1941. Alexander Roslavets and Andrei Korobeinikov will perform the posthumous world premiere of this important late composition as part of their aforementioned song recital (28 June, 7.30 pm).

In memory of Sofia Gubaidulina

A few weeks ago, the great composer Sofia Gubaidulina passed away at the age of 93 († 13 March 2025). She felt a close connection to the Shostakovich Festival, regularly attending the festival since 2014 and submitting several premieres and first performances. When she was honoured with the Shostakovich Prize in Gohrisch in 2017, she confessed that she carries Shostakovich's music in her heart and was grateful to him for encouraging her as a young composer to consistently pursue ‘her own, wrong path’.

In memory of Sofia Gubaidulina, the programme has been extended at short notice to include a discussion concert with film (27 June, 11 a.m.). The great cellist David Geringas and the bayan player Geir Draugsvoll - both of whom worked closely with the composer - will perform some of her compositions and talk to Jan Brachmann (Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung) about their encounters with Sofia Gubaidulina. This will be followed by a screening of the documentary film ‘Sophia - A Violin Concerto for Anne-Sophie Mutter’, in which filmmaker Jan Schmidt-Garre highlights the creation of the 2nd Violin Concerto ‘In tempus praesens’.

Anniversary exhibition
The concert programme will be complemented by a new exhibition on Shostakovich's life, work and impact, which musicologist Dr Alexander Gurdon has designed for the Shostakovich Year 2025. It can be visited during the festival in the concert barn, where a catalogue of the exhibition will also be available.

Advance ticket sales has started on 15 April 2025.

On April 8, 2025, Saxon Transport Minister Regina Kraushaar announced that the Elbe Bridge in Bad Schandau could be reopened to pedestrians and vehicles with a total weight of up to 7.5 tons on the afternoon of April 10. A traffic light-controlled crossing of the bridge will be set up for public transport buses. This will allow all guests who have booked accommodation in Bad Schandau to travel directly to the Gohrischer Konzertscheune and back.

The ferries now run every quarter of an hour. The use of the ferries is free. Under these conditions, the bus shuttle for the guests of the Elbresidenz would then run from Bad Schandau train station towards the concert barn and back. According to the Saxon Infrastructure Ministry, the Elbe bridge will be subjected to intensive stress tests at the beginning of April. If these are positive, a partial opening of the bridge may be possible again in May.

We will keep you, dear audience, up to date on current developments on our website.

A total of seven concerts and a film screening were on the programme from Thursday to Sunday. The performers included the Quatuor Danel as well as Gidon Kremer and members of his Kremerata Baltica, artists who have left their mark on the festival several times in recent years. Matthias Goerne with his pianist Alexander Schmalcz, Marie-Elisabeth Hecker and Martin Helmchen, on the other hand, could be heard for the first time in the Gohrisch concert barn. That also applies to the pianists Nathalia Milstein and Julia Zilberquit and the singers Elena Vassilieva, Ema Nikolovska and Alexandros Stavrakakis. The concluding concert not only featured a work by the composer Alexander Raskatov; he also performed as a pianist himself.

The Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden has formed the artistic backing of the International Shostakovich Festival from the very beginning. And so in the 15th year of the festival, too. Numerous members of the orchestra performed on the Gohrisch concert stage in the 15th year of the festival: in orchestral formation under the direction of Dmitri Jurowski as part of the concert matinee, with the Fritz Busch Quartet, consisting of Tibor Gyenge and Federico Kasik (violin), Michael Horwath (viola) and Titus Maack (violoncello) as well as Robert Lis (violin), Anya Dambeck (viola), Dawoon Kim (violoncello) and Norbert Anger (violoncello) and also in various chamber formations.

Tobias Niederschlag, Artistic Director of the International Shostakovich Days Gohrisch: „I am very happy with how the past four days have gone. We have experienced wonderful concerts - with an audience response that surpassed all our previous experiences. I would therefore like to thank the Shostakovich friends from Germany and abroad who made the journey to Saxon Switzerland, as well as all the artists who responded to our call to perform in the Gohrisch Concert Barn. The Shostakovich Days have once again proven that they are a place for something special. And our audience can expect the same for the next festival year, in which the music world, and therefore we too, will be commemorating the 50th anniversary of Dmitri Shostakovich's death.’

The 16th International Shostakovich Days Gohrisch will take place from 26 to 29 June 2025.

Due to illness and the resulting lack of rehearsal time, Matthias Goerne and his pianist Alexander Schmalcz unfortunately had to cancel the world premiere of Dmitri Shostakovich's "The Nail of Yelabuga", a posthumous romance for bass and piano completed by Alexander Raskatov, at this year's International Shostakovich Festival in Gohrisch at short notice. However, both will be able to perform in Gohrisch (June 28, 2024, 7:30 p.m.). The originally planned program will therefore include songs from "Des Knaben Wunderhorn" by Gustav Mahler and the "Michelangelo Suite" by Shostakovich. We hope that the world premiere can be rescheduled for next year's Shostakovich Festival.

Due to illness, Tugan Sokhiev unfortunately had to cancel his participation in the Staatskapelle Dresden's non-subscription concert on the eve of this year's Shostakovich Festival Gohrisch. As the Semperoper announced today, Russian conductor Vitali Alekseenok will take over the direction of the concert on June 26th at Dresden Kulturpalast. The program with the seventh symphony by Dmitri Shostakovich (“Leningrad”) remains unchanged. You can read the full text of the announcement from the Semperoper here (only in German).

The 14th International Shostakovich Festival Gohrisch ended on Sunday, 25 June 2023 with a concert by the Ukrainian Mriya Quartet with the participation of the pianist Kateryna Titova, also from Ukraine. In addition to the Piano Quintet by Robert Schumann, the programme of the emotional final concert included three works by Ukrainian composers: string quartets by Vasyl Barvinsky and Vitaliy Hubarenko as well as the Melody for String Quartet by Myroslav Skoryk. By inviting the Mriya Quartet, the Shostakovich Festival also wanted to send a signal for the preservation of the threatened Ukrainian culture.

Tobias Niederschlag, Artistic Director of the International Shostakovich Festival Gohrisch: "The past four days fill me with great gratitude. On the one hand, there are the unforgettable concerts that the participating artists have given us in the truest sense of the word. And on the other hand, there is our unique audience in the Gohrisch Concert Barn, who every year again and again get involved with impressive curiosity and enthusiasm in demanding, sometimes even difficult programmes that can only be experienced in this form in Gohrisch. This is an exclusive caracteristic of our festival. We are already looking forward with great anticipation to the 15th International Shostakovich Days next year, which will once again - let us reveal this in advance - present unknown works of Shostakovich."

Six concerts and one film screening were on the festival programme during the past four days. With 3,000 tickets sold, the occupancy rate of the Concert barn was over 80 % and registered an increase of more than 10 % compared to last year.

Other festival protagonists included the Quatuor Danel, violinist Vadim Gluzman, cellist Isang Enders, pianists Angela Yoffe and Boris Giltburg - both first-time guests in Gohrisch - as well as Yulianna Avdeeva, who performed in three festival concerts. She was one of the artists at the opening concert in the Gohrisch Concert barn, performed a piano recital and was also a soloist at the concert with the orchestra Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden and with members of the Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra conducted by Oscar Jockel on the morning of 25 June. The Festival's Shostakovich Prize was awarded this year to the composer and Shostakovich biographer Krzysztof Meyer.

The 15th International Shostakovich Days Gohrisch will take place from 27 to 30 June 2024.

Dmitri Shostakovich, Alfred Schnittke, Krzysztof Meyer: this triumvirate is the focus of the International Shostakovich Festival Gohrisch for the first time. In addition to the eponym, who composed his eighth string quartet in Gohrisch in 1960, two composers are honoured who refer to Shostakovich in their work. With his polystylistic style of writing, Schnittke set the contradictions of the late Soviet era to music like no other. He died 25 years ago in Hamburg. Meyer has been closely associated with the Shostakovich Festival from the beginning. The former friend of Shostakovich and his later biographer celebrates his 80th birthday this year - a welcome occasion for the Shostakovich Festival to honour him with this year's International Shostakovich Prize Gohrisch.

Yulianna Avdeeva, the Quatuor Danel and the Sächsische Staatskapelle with Oscar Jockel

In the Festival's opening concert on 22 June, the Quatuor Danel, one of the world's leading Shostakovich quartets, will perform his String Quartets No. 4 and No. 13. The 13th Quartet will thus be heard for the first time at the Shostakovich Festival. The programme will be completed by the Piano Quintet by Alfred Schnittke, in which the Quatuor Danel will collaborate for the first time with the pianist Yulianna Avdeeva. The 1st prize winner of the Warsaw Chopin Competition 2010 is a guest at the Shostakovich Festival for the fourth time. On 23 June, she will also give a piano recital in the Gohrisch Concert Barn, where she will perform works by Meyer and Mieczysław Weinberg as well as the German premiere of the short piano piece "Murzilka" by Shostakovich and the monumental "Hammerklavier Sonata" by Beethoven. Avdeeva can be heard a third time in Gohrisch this year: as soloist in the performance evening of the Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden with members of the Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra, which will take place as a matinee on 25 June. In addition to Schnittke's Concerto for Piano and String Orchestra, Meyer's "Metamorphoses" for chamber orchestra and Shostakovich's Chamber Symphony op. 83a are also on the programme - the latter is an orchestral arrangement of the Fourth String Quartet by Rudolf Barshai, which will be heard for the first time at the Shostakovich Festival. The conductor of the performance evening is the young Oscar Jockel, who was recently awarded the Herbert von Karajan Prize at the Salzburg Easter Festival and is at the beginning of a promising career.

Two Duo Recitals: Isang Enders/Boris Giltburg, Vadim Gluzman/Angela Yoffe

On 24 June, two duo recitals are on the programme: in the afternoon, Isang Enders, former concertmaster violoncello of the Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden and once co-initiator of the Shostakovich Festival, and pianist Boris Giltburg will perform Alfred Schnittke's first cello sonata. Giltburg will also present his own piano arrangement of Shostakovich's Third String Quartet in this concert. On the occasion of the awarding of the Shostakovich Prize to Krzysztof Meyer, the latter's second sonata for solo violoncello from 2007 will be performed. In the evening, violinist Vadim Gluzman and pianist Angela Yoffe will perform, among others, the "Suite in the Old Style" and the "Prelude in memoriam Dmitri Shostakovich" by Schnittke as well as an arrangement of Shostakovich's Suite for Jazz Orchestra No. 1, which Michael Gluzman, the violinist's father, arranged for violin and piano. The finale will be the large cycle of 24 Preludes for Violin and Piano op. 46 by Lera Auerbach, who took part in the Shostakovich Festival in 2011 as the "Capell-Compositrice" of the Sächsische Staatskapelle.

Hope for a more peaceful future

Last year, the Shostakovich Festival - in view of Russia's terrible war of aggression on Ukraine - already paid tribute to the Ukrainian composer Valentin Silvestrov, who attended the entire festival as guest of honour. To conclude this year's Shostakovich Festival, the Ukrainian Mriya Quartet will perform works by other composers from their threatened homeland. The Ukrainian word "Mriya" means "dream" and in this context stands for music-making beyond war and the misery associated with it. The last work of the concert is the Piano Quintet by Robert Schumann with pianist Kateryna Titova - this work, which ends both dramatically and euphorically, can be understood as a hopeful signal for a more peaceful future.

Film screening and exhibition

The festival programme will be complemented by a screening of the Soviet documentary "Dmitri Shostakovich - Altovaya sonata" from 1981, in which the directors Semyon Aranovich and Alexander Sokurov look back on Shostakovich's eventful biography through the viola sonata, his last work. In addition, the exhibition "DSCH - Digital Collages" with graphics and Shostakovich portraits by the Dresden artist Anders Winter can be viewed in the foyer of the Gohrisch Concert barn during all four days of the festival.

"Every year, world-class artists respond to our call to the Gohrisch Concert barn, perform programmes that they rehearse exclusively for our festival - and do it without any fee. That always borders on a miracle! This idealism, this enthusiasm for the cause is ultimately due to the artist and person of Dmitri Shostakovich, to whom all the musicians participating in the Festival feel closely connected. We feel that as festival organisers, and that creates an atmosphere in Gohrisch that can only be described as unique." Tobias Niederschlag, Artistic Director of the International Shostakovich Days Gohrisch.

Special concert by the Staatskapelle Dresden

As in previous years, the Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden will give a special concert on the eve of the International Shostakovich Festival (21 June) at the Dresden Palace of Culture. The orchestra, which has supported and helped to shape the Shostakovich Festival from the very beginning, will perform Shostakovich's Fifth Symphony under the direction of Andrés Orozco-Estrada. Also on the programme is the Trumpet Concerto by Shostakovich‘s close friend, Mieczysław Weinberg, with the exceptional trumpeter Håkan Hardenberger as soloist.

Advance ticket sales

Individual tickets for the International Shostakovich Festival Gohrisch go on sale on 19 April 2023. Tickets can be booked at www.schostakowitsch-tage.de. Tickets for the special concert of the Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden on 21 June 2023 are available at www.staatskapelle-dresden.de.

This year's International Shostakovich Festival Gohrisch, which will take place from 30 June to 3 July 2022 in the spa town of Gohrisch (Saxon Switzerland), will once again feature a world premiere by Dmitri Shostakovich: The choral piece "Glory to the Shipbuilders" was added to the programme at short notice and will be heard for the first time in a public concert performance. The a cappella work will be presented at the beginning of the opening concert on 30 June by members of the Saxon Vocal Ensemble under the direction of Matthias Jung in the Concert barn of Gohrisch.

The so far unknown work was discovered by the Russian musicologist Dr Olga Digonskaya, head archivist of the Moscow Shostakovich Archive. Over the past decades, she has brought countless Shostakovich manuscripts to light and was awarded the International Shostakovich Prize Gohrisch in 2021 for her services. The musicologist writes about her latest discovery: "Shostakovich's song 'Glory to the Shipbuilders' is virtually unknown, although its title occasionally appears in musical publications." After extensive archival research, she discovered that Shostakovich gave the song in 1964 as a gift to the workers of the important shipyard "Nosenko" in the Ukrainian city of Nikolayev for its 175th anniversary. Digonskaya discovered the complete text of the song by the Ukrainian poet Aleksander Uvarov and finally also sketches for the choral composition in Shostakovich's legacy: this clearly proves the authorship.

"We are extremely grateful that we can continue the history of Shostakovich premieres in Gohrisch with this new rarity," says Tobias Niederschlag, Artistic Director of the International Shostakovich Festival Gohrisch. In recent years, works by Shostakovich have already been regularly premiered in Gohrisch, including posthumous fragments from the opera "The Nose", an impromptu for viola and piano as well as numerous early piano works by the composer. "Olga Digonskaya already told me last year about an unknown choral piece, but there were still many unanswered questions. At the time, no one could have guessed that it was a work with a concrete reference to Ukraine, which has taken on a frighteningly topical relevance in the present time. In the opening concert of this year's festival we put it as a sort of 'motto'."

In addition to works by Dmitri Shostakovich, the programme of the Shostakovich Festival 2022 also includes a number of works by Ukrainian composers - above all by Valentin Silvestrov, who is personally expected in Gohrisch and will be awarded this year's Shostakovich Prize.

 Further information and tickets at www.schostakowitsch-tage.de

In its 13th year, the International Shostakovich Festival is dedicated not only to works by Shostakovich, but also to the music of Ukrainian composers. The festival organisers are thus reacting to the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine, against the background of which the music of Dmitri Shostakovich regains a frightening topicality. The programme includes numerous works by Valentin Silvestrov, probably the most important living composer from Ukraine, who is also expected in Gohrisch in person: The now 84-year-old, who fled from Kiev to Berlin a few weeks ago, is to receive this year's Shostakovich Prize on 2 July 2022. On this occasion, he will also perform his own works on the piano.

Premieres and first performances
In addition, Silvestrov's 3rd String Quartet and his 2 Elegies for String Orchestra will be performed in Germany for the first time at the Shostakovich Festival. The Documentary "V. Silvestrov", made in Ukraine in 2020, will also be shown in Germany for the first time at the festival. In the final concert, pianist Alexei Lubimov and soprano Viktoriia Vitrenko will perform works by Silvestrov and Franz Schubert from the concert programme that was prematurely interrupted by the Moscow police a few weeks ago. The programme will now be performed in its entirety in Gohrisch.

In addition to the music of Valentin Silvestrov, the opening concert on 30 June 2022 will also feature works by the Ukrainian composer Yuri Povolotsky, including two world premieres. 

„New“ works by Dmitri Shostakovich
There will also be "new" works by Dmitri Shostakovich in Gohrisch: Dmitri Jurowski will premiere his own arrangement of the song cycle on poems by Marina Tsvetaeva op. 143a in a performance evening by the Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden. For the first time, he will also present to the public an extended concert suite of the incidental music to "The Human Comedy" op. 37, arranged by his father Mikhail Jurowski. Mikhail Jurovsky, who had a decisive influence on the Shostakovich Festival in its early years, died in Berlin in March 2022. He was originally to conduct this performance evening, which is now dedicated to his memory.

In addition to works by Shostakovich and Silvestrov, the programme also includes some compositions by Sofia Gubaidulina. The great Russian composer and Shostakovich Prize winner 2017 celebrated her 90th birthday last autumn.

Re-encounters and numerous first-time appearances
The concerts will once again feature renowned artists: The pianists Yulianna Avdeeva and Elisaveta Blumina as well as the soprano Evelina Dobračeva will return to Gohrisch. For the first time, violinist Vadim Gluzman, pianist Alexei Lubimov, soprano Viktoriia Vitrenko and conductor Dmitri Jurowski will perform in the Gohrisch Concert Barn. In addition, several soloists, members of the Sächsische Staatskapelle, are involved in the chamber concerts. Also this year, all of the artists will perform in Gohrisch without a fee.

This year's cooperation is particularly close with the Sächsische Staatskapelle and the Semperoper Dresden. In addition to the non-subscription concert on the eve of the festival (conductor: Omer Meir Wellber), the premiere of a new production of Shostakovich's opera "The Nose" at the Semperoper (conductor: Petr Popelka) will also take place during the festival period, accompanied by a scientific symposium at the Dresden Academy of Music. The programme is thus more diverse than ever before and will span an arc from Shostakovich's piano and chamber music to the great symphonies and opera.

Photo exhibition by Matthias Creutziger
A retrospective of the first 12 years of the International Shostakovich Festival Gohrisch is provided by a photo exhibition by Matthias Creutziger, who has accompanied the festival every year from the beginning.

"After two years in which, due to the pandemic, the Shostakovich Festival took place virtually or with an excursion to the Festspielhaus Dresden-Hellerau, we are extremely happy to return to Gohrisch. We felt a great need to focus the festival on the music by Ukrainian composers, especially by Valentin Silvestrov, in view of the terrible war in Ukraine. We are very much looking forward to this great composer who represents the contemporary musical culture of his country like no other." Tobias Niederschlag, Artistic Director of the International Shostakovich Festival Gohrisch

Individual tickets go on sale on 29 April 2022. 

Click here to have a look at the programme.