Rudolf Barshai - The Note - Naxos Deutschland

The conductor Rudolf Barshai was one of the greatest musicians of the twentieth century. The Moscow Chamber Orchestra, founded by Barshai in the late 1950s took the world by storm. Among the orchestra's collaboratory were names such as Sviatoslav Richter, David Oistrakh, Emil Gilels, and Yehudi Menhin. The documentary follows Rudolf Barhsai's self-confessional monologue, recorded only one month before his death. In 1977, at the peak of his career, Barshai emigrated to the West to perform works banned in the former Soviet Union. He came to fame as a master of orchestration, whom Shostakovich - his mentor and friend - trusted to arrange his quarters into chamber symphonies. Barhsi considered his greatest achievements in life the ending to Bach's Art of Fugue and a version of Mahler's Tenth Symphony.