Humourists

If Shostakovich is remembered today in reverent terms, it is based perhaps on the cumulative impact of his most haunted works –the Fourteenth symphony, the final string quartets– as well as his most devastating and savage. But the man had an unmistakable sense of humour; and while much of his later work may have been the product of cautious scepticism and genuine anguish, one finds ample evidence in the late-twenties and early-thirties of a composer whose works were shaped by a provocative wit. It was this lighter side of Shostakovich -complemented by two similarly good-natured works form Prokofiev- that formed the programme of an immensely delightful concert recently given by the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin under the direction of Dima Slobodeniouk. While the four pieces -one piano concerto and one suite from each composer-…