Composers: Shostakovich
Performers: Dmitri Shostakovich p,
various artists
Catalogue Number: Melodiya MELCD1002596 (5CD)

When Shostakovich graduated from the Leningrad Conservatory in 1923 it was as a pianist and, until a recurring weakness in one hand curtailed his playing, for a while he was in demand as a soloist, especially in his own music. Although he composed relatively little for piano, he did record some of his works for EMI in the late 1950s. This revelatory and intensely affecting set, recorded between 1946 and 1968 and now decently remastered, comes from Soviet sources and is, in a word, irreplaceable.