"The government would have been delighted to execute him," said the great cellist Rostropovich, an old friend of the composer. "But they had never seen such audience success … . So they said 'We've taught him, and now he's writing acceptable music.'"
Pletnev's Russian National Orchestra is a private foundation independent of state sponsorship. As an orchestra that's been hailed as reaching almost inconceivably high standards, anything they perform will be of immense interest to classical music-lovers. But how they play Shostakovich's landmark symphony (once in Taipei and once in Taichung) will surely be the unavoidable focus of their visit.
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