The sensational tenor Oliver Johnston is joined by pianist Natalie Burch to perform Shostakovich’s Six Romances on Texts by Japanese Poets. For these highly personal songs, dedicated to his first wife, Nina Varzar, Shostakovich drew on Japanese poems originally translated into German by Hans Beghte in the same series Mahler had drawn on for Das Lied von der Erde. Oliver and Natalie also perform the seven exuberant love songs on texts by Michelangelo written by Shostakovich’s great friend Benjamin Britten and dedicated to Britten’s partner Peter Pears. We are delighted that they will also give the world premiere of two songs by Elena Langer setting the Russian poet Osip Mandelstam.