Lawrence Power & Pavel Kolesnikov: Russian Roots

Step into a world of history, folk heritage and rich musical tradition, as BBC Radio 3 invites chamber musicians, from singers to string quartets, to explore Russian music from across the centuries.

Pavel Kolesnikov and Lawrence Power – both alumni of the BBC’s New Generation Artists scheme, which celebrates its 20th anniversary this season – join forces in this concert for one of the most raw, moving works of the 20th century, Shostakovich’s Viola Concerto. The composer’s final work, completed a matter of days before his death in 1975, it’s an elegy, a farewell, interlaced with allusions to composers he loved – Beethoven, Berg, Mahler – with haunting solo lines floating over a sparse accompaniment.