Valery Znamensky reviews

Here is an excellent introduction to Galina Ustvolskaya, whose direct and uncompromising style amazingly reached maturity under Stalin. Her teacher, Shostakovich, confessed: ‘It is not you who is influenced by me, but I by you.’ Ustvolskaya’s subsequent insistence that her work ‘is in no way connected to that of any other composer’ has contributed to her flinty music’s rather daunting reputation. Don’t be put off.