David Grimal and his ensemble Les Dissonances play Shostakovich's First Cello Concerto. Composed in a difficult period of Shostakovich's life who then suffers from poliomyelitis, this concerto is dedicated to Mstislav Rostropovich. The musical motif DSCH occurs clearly in this work. In the final Shostakovich used Stalin’s favorite Russian melody, “Suliko”, but deforming it in an ironic gloomy way to show that even long time after the death of Stalin, Shostakovich had not forgotten the persecutions from whom he was the victim.
