Gramophone Magazine
Awards Issue 2020
Editor's Choice

Natalia Prishepenko (violin), Dina Ugorskaja (piano)

Prokofiev: Violin Sonata No. 1 in F minor, Op. 80
Shostakovich: Violin Sonata, Op. 134

This recording took place in the Studio 2 of the Bayerischer Rundfunk in Munich, in February 2016. Dina Ugorskaja pursued the finishing process of the master with great impulse and unbelievable energy during a time when her health was abating. This project will stay simply as a singular milestone.

Prokofiev and Shostakovich were ambivalent toward one another. Prokofiev accused Shostakovich of "devouring everything" (the fact that the younger composer dared to incorporate the street genres of entertainment music into his classical compositions) and affirmed that Shostakovich had no gift for melody. Shostakovich, for his part, occasionally found Prokofiev's music too crude, too clearly illustrative. Yet, in spite of the largely unfair criticism they directed toward one another, each one never let his counterpart entirely out of his sight, or, to be more exact, of his ears. Ever since the 1920s their music was featured on joint recital programmes. The young Shostakovich acknowledged Prokofiev's influence on certain of his own works. Prokofiev, when abroad, encouraged "chemical exchange between Russia and Europe" and promoted Shostakovich's works in particular, even expressing the wish that his younger colleague be allowed to perform abroad, too. But that was not to be. (From the booklet lines notes by Tatjana Frumkis).

Violinist Natalia Prishepenko came to prominence in three of the most prestigious international competitions: the Paganini in 1990, the Tokyo in 1992, and the Reine Elisabeth de Belgique in 1993. Following these successes, her solo career took flight. From 1994 Natalia Prishepenko was primaria of the Artemis Quartet for eighteen years, traveling the world celebrating success after success.

Pianist Dina Ugorskaja made solo appearances at the Gewandhaus in Leipzig, the Liederhalle in Stuttgart, the Philharmonie in Cologne, the Herkulessaal in Munich, the Sala Verdi in Milan, and Radio France Auditorium in Paris. She was invited to perform at festivals including the Schubertiade in Feldkirch and the Kassel Music Festival. 2019 marked the 10th anniversary of her fruitful collaboration with the CAvi-Music label. Her recordings have been repeatedly nominated for the International Classical Music Awards and for the German Music Critics' Prize. Her last album with works by Schubert received the ICMA award posthum.

"Given Ugorskaja’s tendency to rapt introspection at leisurely tempos I was initially taken aback by the duo’s focused take on these David Oistrakh-inspired works. The Prokofiev comes first in physical format, its disparate moods consciously held within bounds… Next, the balder abstractions of Shostakovich’s Violin Sonata – not so much softened as made to sound spontaneous." - Gramophone Magazine, Awards Issue 2020.