Dmitri Shostakovich - Songs and Dances of Death

Song cycle for voice (usually bass or bass-baritone) and piano by Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky. Dmitri Shostakovich orchestrated the whole cycle in 1962 for the dedicatee, soprano Galina Vishnevskaya. Seven years later, noting that he wanted to continue Mussorgsky’s “too short“ set of songs, he wrote his Fourteenth Symphony for soprano, bass and chamber orchestra, adding to the musical gallery of death’s appearances. Shostakovich’s orchestration had a substantial influence on many of his later works, and has