Shostakovich covers

Having been stunned by the Françoise-Green Piano Duo playing Mahler's Sixth Symphony in Zemlinsky's arrangement last night, I came across two rather more outlandish adaptations, this time of Shostakovich. Heavy metal wouldn't work for the greater part of the works in question, but to paraphrase Iestyn Davies, who drew our attention to the string quartet movement below, it's somehow how I also imagined the movements in question. Here's the whirlwind scherzo of the Tenth Symphony from Conor Gallagher x 4 (plus some wacky drumming).

There's only one snag - the very few bars of p and pp can't be achieved in this medium. Of course we also have an invaluable four-hand version from Shostakovich himself and his great acolyte Miecsylaw Weinberg, briefly available on the short-lived Revelation label but helpfully up on YouTube with a rather odd accompanying photo.

The whole performance is available in a single slice on YouTube too. Finally, let's hear the talented Mr Gallagher in the 'cover' which led to my finding the above, of the Eighth String Quartet's second movement. The quotation from the Second Piano Trio sounds especially wild and unexpected on electric guitars.