The composer Rodion Shchedrin was one of the leading figures of Soviet music in the post-war period. This album by the Turku Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Olli Mustonen brings together four of his works, including music from his ballet "Lady with a puppy" and a viola concerto, "Concerto dolce", played by Lawrence Power, one of the greatest violists of our time. Rodion Shchedrin died while this album was being recorded, making it a memorial to the unique friendship and artistic collaboration between Olli Mustonen and Shchedrin that lasted around thirty years.

Shchedrin moved freely between different styles and combined influences and materials from various sources, describing himself as a "post-avant-gardist". Shchedrin's five ballets make him a fully-fledged heir to the Russian ballet tradition, which he simultaneously reformed. "Dame mit Hündchen" was his last complete ballet, and he wrote it for his wife's 60th birthday. The concert piece is just as concertized as the original ballet.

"Shepherd's Pipes of Vologda" (1995) was commissioned by Hungarian Radio and is a tribute to the Hungarian master composer Béla Bartók - Shchedrin also traveled to Belarus and Vologda to study and record folk music.

The internationally renowned violist Lawrence Power has appeared regularly as a guest musician with orchestras of the highest caliber over the past ten years, but he is also in great demand as a chamber musician. The Turku Musical Society, which later became the Turku Philharmonic Orchestra, was founded in 1790, making it one of the oldest in the world. Olli Mustonen occupies a unique position in today's music scene. In the tradition of great masters such as Serge Rachmaninoff, he combines the roles of composer, pianist and conductor in great balance and often unites them in a fascinating triple role.