We know the article "Chaos instead of music", almost as famous as the scandal of Stravinsky's Rite in 1913 or "the fool" who accompagnit Mr. Ravel's Bolero, like what, the music may be the news. So in 36 years of paid holidays in France, Shostakovich was condemned to live in fear of arrest, deportation or a bullet in the head. The article is to be read in full in the excellent "musical scandal in Moscow" Alexander Werth, digression. Closed. Stalin's death, the work was renamed and "redacted". The great Rostro, greatest cellist leader, has anyway made the original version a larger disk (Emi). More recently, Chung then to the Bastille had its little impact with this crazy opera, feminist, music and book a direct gender violence uppercut, opera activist for the right of women to get rid of the bastards, profiteers and disgusting. Finally reissued, and cheap. It is a studio-making, the sound is very realistic, the striking voice, very dry orchestra, the strong leadership with a hint of stiffness, but Lady Macbeth is anyway not the merry widow! When you love Shostakovich, love it or must love, for better or worse, Katerina Izmailova.
