A Spirited Tribute to Shostakovich

Climaxing a weekend of activities devoted to Dmitri Shostakovich, musicians under the artistic direction of Julien Musafia came together for a festive concert Sunday afternoon in the Carpenter Performing Arts Center at Cal State Long Beach.

The program gathered odds and ends from the Shostakovich oeuvre, from four decades of his creative life, some of it uncharacteristic, much of it minor and seldom heard.

The concert-ending Seven Romances on Words of Alexander Bok, Opus 127, tapped into the mother lode though, a late, austerely brooding work. Soprano Galina Pisarenko threaded her lines with rich voice and pregnantly restrained expression, closely seconded by pianist Musafia, violinist Oleh Krysa and cellist Julius Berger.

Pianist Richard Carpenter (yes, of the Carpenters) joined Musafia for a spirited and well-played performance of the entertaining Concertino, in the same vein (galloping spectacle) as the Festival Overture, which opened the concert in a thoroughly disciplined and euphonious reading by the CSULB Wind Symphony under John Carnahan.

Also heard were the Piano Trio, Opus 8, (a teenage work), the Cello Sonata, Opus 40, and two Preludes and Fugues from Opus 87, all strongly accounted for.

The most touching moment of the afternoon came during the preconcert discussion with Irina Shostakovich, the composer’s widow, when a film clip of the aged Shostakovich listening to a performance of his opera “The Nose” was shown: His famously morose face was enthralled, agitated, rapturously mouthing words and finally streaming with tears of joy. An unforgettable image.