For a “dry business newspaper,” the economist ❚ ❚ 🤙 writes strikingly poetic obituaries. This week’s is no exception. It is a fitting tribute to my great colleague #Haitink, and captures what was most important about his music-making—service of the composer. econ.st/3EWsoLf

Reverse Immortality ignatsolzhenitsyn.com/latest/2021/11…

Michelangelo and Shostakovich, Part 2 ignatsolzhenitsyn.com/latest/2021/12…

Michelangelo and Shostakovich, Part 3 ignatsolzhenitsyn.com/latest/2022/1/…

Thanks, Jordan. And greatly enjoyed our discussion last week CSPAN bit.ly/35KPYOV

Michelangelo and Shostakovich Friday night in Philadelphia Philadelphia Chamber Music Society with Simon Barrad and Hsin-Yun Huang.bit.ly/ShostakovichPh…

Come hear the concert if you are in town, or catch the livestream here: youtu.be/vdjCpRuPXPs

In front of a Center City bookstore, a novel take on boosting literature.

Forthright and eminently reasonable piece by Winston Marshall The Spectator, quoting yours truly, and calling for more speech, not less. spectator.co.uk/article/when-d…

If you’re in Phila, come tonight to Ben Franklin Hall to hear two of Shostakovich’s profoundest final works: the Michelangelo Suite and the Viola Sonata.

Here is the bewitching "Night": Shostakovich Op. 145, No. 9 | Night (Dialogue) by Simon Barrad and Ignat Solzhenitsyn on #SoundCloud soundcloud.app.goo.gl/ztqTCjoF5zW3Tf…

With Simon Barrad and Hsin-Yun Huang after last night's Shostakovich Philadelphia Chamber Music Society in Philadelphia. Livestream still viewable youtu.be/vdjCpRuPXPs via YouTube

Thank you Jack Fowler. It seems some things need to be said again and again…

I enjoyed it Jacobs Music Company. Wonderful students, and beautiful pianos for us to work with.

Thrilled to be presenting two of Shostakovich's last three works with fabulous partners Simon Barrad and Timothy Ridout Wigmore Hall on 22/2/22.

If you're around London tonight, join Simon Barrad Timothy Ridout and me Wigmore Hall. Performing two of Shostakovich's final masterpieces, suffused with a deep connection to Michelangelo and Dante. bit.ly/Shost145147

Giovanni Strozzi to Michelangelo, praising his incomparable sculpture Night: —Here is this Night, that so calmly sleeps Before you, the creation of an angel. She is of stone, but there is breath in her: Only awaken her—she will begin to speak.

But Michelangelo replies with bitter imperturbability: —It’s sweet to sleep, but better still to be a stone, When all around is shame and crime: Not feeling, not seeing is a relief, Fall silent then, friend, why awaken me?

The program ends with the Viola Sonata, Op. 147, Shostakovich's final utterance, completed just days before his death on 9 August 1975. It is one of the greatest pieces in the viola repertoire. The finale is dedicated "to the memory of the great Beethoven".

Bravo, Reinis Zariņš, for an outstanding rendition of Messiaen's cosmic Vingt Regards tonight Wigmore Hall. (And by memory, no less: we pianists well know what a herculean effort this entails.)