‘ROTHSCHILD’S VIOLIN’ by ANTON CHEKOV
Gerda Stevenson, narrator & Mithras Trio
Shostakovich: Piano Trio No.2 in E minor, Op. 67
Chekhov: Rothschild's
Violin, from 'Novellas and Stories'
Yakov Ivanov, an ill-tempered
village coffin-maker and violinist, has always hated the local orchestra’s
popular Jewish flautist, Rothschild. When Yakov becomes sick after his
long-suffering wife dies, he experiences an epiphany that leads to an
extraordinary act of generosity that astonishes everyone who knows him.
Shostakovich
began work on his klezmer/Jewish-inspired 2nd Piano Trio just 10 days
after completing the orchestration of ‘Rothschild’s Violin’, an opera by
his pupil Veniamin Fleishman who died at the Siege of Leningrad. For this
performance, the movements and the story alternate.
Artist info: mithrastrio.co.uk
| gerdastevenson.co.uk
