Richard Strauss & Dmitri Shostakovich: Sonatas for Violin & Piano

Richard Strauss’s jubilant and romantic Violin Sonata (1888) was written amidst the relative innocence of fin-de-siècle Europe; Dmitri Shostakovich wrote his mournful and bleak Sonata (1968) at the height of the Cold War, in the twilight of his existence. Franziska Pietsch and Josu De Solaun bring new life to two starkly contrasting works that together present a complex and emotional portrait of human existence.