The International Shostakovich Days in Gohrisch became the setting for a historic concert morning: Rostislav Krimer presented three European premieres of works by Lev Abeliovich. The concert marked a milestone in the rediscovery of this long-forgotten composer.

By Michael Ernst
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 1 July 2026

“…How evident this closeness was, Rostislav Krimer demonstrated not only in words — ‘I had known Abeliovich since childhood because he was a friend of my father, but I devote myself to his music because of its exceptional quality!’ — but also at the piano. No fewer than three compositions, written between 1955 and 1974, received their European premieres in Gohrisch.

A dreamlike, searching Adagio, interpreted by Krimer and Mönkemeyer with restrained serenity, may, from a biographical perspective, reflect a life shaped alike by National Socialist and Stalinist antisemitism.

Elegiac contrasts were provided by Shostakovich’s Impromptu from 1931, itself premiered in Gohrisch only eight years ago, framed in turn by two further works by Abeliovich. His Piano Sonata of 1974 could be understood as an inward monologue on the composer’s eventful biography — an open-hearted reflection of a life marked by trauma that nevertheless managed to preserve its dignity and pride despite every hardship. Two decades earlier, Abeliovich composed his Trio for Violin, Cello and Piano, in which the anti-Jewish campaigns of the late Stalin era find deeply painful expression. It is a language of profound emotional suffering, infused with defiant spirit and filled with despair born both of unforgettable wartime memories and of renewed hardship and fear…”