Like his close friend and colleague Dmitri 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. But his personality remained undaunted, as his music resolutely proves. This is the first recording of his Third and Fourth Suites and Ballet Suite, all three prepared from theatre music, and showing the lighter side of Shebalin’s symphonic muse, similar in style to the dance music of Shostakovich and Prokofiev. They have been recorded by the orchestra of his home town, Omsk, the capital of Siberia.

“Unquestionably this is a marvellous orchestra… Enjoyable from the first to last these examples of Shebalin’s music deserve increased exposure and with a recording as splendid as this from the Siberian Symphony Orchestra it could hardly receive finer advocacy.” – MusicWeb International on Vol.1 (TOCC0136)