Like his close friend and colleague Dmitry Shostakovich, Vissarion Shebalin (1902–63) knew a life of both celebrity and hardship: he was another of the composers condemned in the infamous 1948 Party congress in Moscow, and in later life he fought to overcome a series of crippling strokes. His personality remained undaunted by these tribulations, as his music resolutely proves.

This is the first recording of his First Suite for Orchestra and the first appearance on CD of the Second. Both Suites were prepared from theatre music and show the lighter side of Shebalin’s symphonic music.

The two Suites have been recorded by the orchestra of Shebalin’s home town, Omsk, the capital of Siberia. The chief conductor, Dmitry Vasilyev, studied at the Rostov State Conservatoire and then with Alexander Skulsky in Nizhni Novogorod. He has been chief conductor of the Siberian Symphony Orchestra since 2008.

A later CD will present a recording of the Third Suite and some other unrecorded orchestral scores by Shebalin.

This is the first of a series of recordings of Russian and other symphonic repertoire that the Siberian Symphony Orchestra and Dmitry Vasilyev will be recording for Toccata Classics.