As with Prokofiev's Cello Symphony Concertante, Dmitri Chostakovich's Cello Concerto No. 1 in E-flat major would probably never have seen the light of day had it not been for the boundless activity of cellist Mstislav Rostropovich from the moment he arrived on the Soviet music scene. Chostakovich had not written anything for this instrument since his beautiful Sonata op. 40 in 1934. That same year saw the premiere of his opera Lady Macbeth by Mzensk, which was subsequently withdrawn from the repertoire on Stalin's orders. Twenty-five years later, the dictator has been dead for six years, and Chostakovich's music is no longer on the blacklist of sinister memory drawn up by the Communist Party in 1948. Despite health problems, the last fifteen years of the composer's life were among the most fruitful of his career, as he wrote no less than seven string quartets and his last three symphonies.

During a visit to French-speaking Switzerland, Diaghilev was surprised to hear the first sketches of Petrouchka on the piano. Diaghilev urged the composer to put aside the Rite of Spring project and complete the drama of the broken-hearted puppet as quickly as possible. Although the reviews were mixed, Parisians gave Petrouchka the same rapturous reception as they had given to The Firebird. The success was due as much to the legendary dancer Vaslav Nijinsky in the title role as to the integration of Fokine's choreography and sets with Stravinsky's music, which was judged to be second to none.

This concert is recorded and broadcast live by RTS Espace 2, available on the Play RTS application: www.rts.ch/concertdusoir or osr.ch/live