According to the poet Mayakovsky, artists should ‘spit out the past like a bone stuck in our throats… Our duty is to blare like brass-throated horns in the fogs of bourgeois vulgarity.’ Is this the explanation behind the extraordinary factory siren that heralds in the arrival of the chorus and their ‘abominable’ words? Doubts and problems. Initially proud of these works, Shostakovich proclaimed them to be failures in the 1950s. ( Log Out / 3. 5 at our European Tour Preview Concerts with Hilary Hahn on February 23, 24 & 25. Find album reviews, stream songs, credits and award information for Shostakovich: Symphony No. Shostakovich Symphony No.5 London Symphony Orchestra & Maxim Shostakovich Shostakovich: Symphony No. DMITRI DMITRIEVICH SHOSTAKOVICH BORN: September 25, 1906.Saint Petersburg DIED: August 9, 1975.Moscow. 103 'The year 1905' WDR Sinfonieorchester Koln, Semyon Bychkov The performance from the WDR Symphony Orchestra is compelling at both ends of the dynamic spectrum, from the heart-rending funereal … All this darkness suffocates me. Shostakovich Symphony no. 2 in C-sharp minor for Violin and Orchestra, Opus 129. I am a big fan of Shostakovich, especially the piano works (24 preludes and fugues, piano concertos and piano quintet are all incredible), but this was the latest work of his I had ever heard. Shostakovich was surprisingly unequivocal in what he thought of it, referring to the words as ‘quite disgusting… very bad poetry… abominable’. 93 (1953) 2 - Symphony #5 in D minor, Op. 2 in B major, Op. However, his Piano Concerto No.2 is a gloriously free, wistful creation – particularly in the famous second movement, which guarantees the whole work’s enduring popularity. 13, ‘Pathetique’, Mozart Violin Concerto no. Dmitri Shostakovich’s First Symphony may be the greatest graduation project of all time. Is this moment intended to point out the difference between the past and the present or is it supposed to show the gap between the private artist and the public composer – a gap that would be one of the defining features of Shostakovich’s entire life? BBC Proms 2007: Prom 48Royal Albert HallAugust 19, 2007Simón Bolivar Youth Orchestra of VenezuelaGustavo Dudamel, conductorShostakovich Symphony 10mvt II. This was considered Klangflächenmusik (cluster composition) before the term was officially coined. Wikipedia tells us that it is “meditative” and that Shostakovich described it as “the “death of a child” (letter to Boleslav Yavorsky) killed on the Nevsky Prospekt.”. performed by the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra and Chorus under Neeme Järvi, or as below with the WDR Radio Chorus and WDR Symphony Orchestra Cologne under Rudolf Barshai. In time, this much repeated role would become as much a burden to him as it was a saving grace. (This was not performed until 1961, during the Kruschev era.) © Mark Wigglesworth 2012. After this climax, there’s a return to the chamber-like atmosphere, closing with our violin solo, and I really think if we just finished here and chucked the finale in the bin, we’d have an almost interesting piece of music. 3 in E flat major, Op. I have multiple times now put on this work while I’m doing other things, and promptly forgot anything was playing and suddenly started hearing strings. From sheer misery, I’ve started to compose the finale of the symphony. The word “seem” is appropriate since, of all composers in the 20th century, of none is it truer to say that the more we know the less we know. The finale reaches a clear climax, cymbal crash and all, but a snare drum made of pure tragedy doesn’t let the piece end. Born in 1906, Dmitri Dmitriyevich Shostakovich was a prodigious child as both pianist and composer. Walter, Toscanini, and Klemperer all performed it. Stalin had asked for light and boisterous finales. Or is Shostakovich simply trying to draw a clearly defined line between the music he wanted to write and the music he had to write? Shostakovich wrote that ‘whereas in October, the main content is struggle, May expresses the festive spirit of peaceful development… This does not mean that the music in May is all glorifying and celebratory. 14, ‘To October’, View fugueforthought’s profile on Facebook, View fugueforthought’s profile on Twitter, Lisa Casal-Galietta: A (Red) Door to Classical Music, Follow Fugue for Thought on WordPress.com, Beethoven Piano Sonata no. Composer Dmitri Shostakovich was already in the doghouse after performances of his 1934 opera Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk. 2 in 1967 for David Oistrakh, to whom the score is dedicated.It was meant to be a gift for the violinist’s sixtieth birthday, September 30, 1968; … As we will see, the lack of inspiration thankfully didn’t last, but this is also a reflection of the social, political and artistic climate of the time. He came to grow tired of, if not entirely resent, composing the work, and thought very little of the text, but it was eventually completed. The directors of the conservatory were excited by the genius they felt they had nurtured and arranged for the symphony to be performed by Nikolai Malko and the Leningrad Philharmonic Orchestra. This choice may have been influenced at least partially by Vsevolod Meyerhold’s theory of biomechanics. Like Schoenberg’s Pierrot Lunaire, another piece he admired, the disconcerting idea of human beings as puppets, with their actions manipulated by unseen string-pullers from on high, was one that stayed with the composer right the way through to his final symphony, written almost fifty years later. 2 & 3 - Amazon.com Music But to many, the triumph rang hollow. Symphony No. Even today, people wonder just what Shostakovich was trying to say. 2 in G Major, Op. 2. 7 "Leningrad" Kurt Masur & New York Philharmonic Shostakovich: Piano Concertos No. 2, Op. Written at the age of eighteen, Shostakovich’s First Symphony was the graduation piece that completed his studies at the Leningrad Conservatory. Only those with the shortest of musical memories can listen to the rousing choral finale with a sense of triumph and joy. 14 no. It is hard to know if the Second and Third Symphonies reflect a pride in the Revolution that was only later to turn to disillusionment, or if they are the views of an already disenchanted and politically cynical individual. But this relatively comfortable middle-class childhood would not last long. Alban Berg was even moved to write a flattering letter of appreciation. 1, and the Symphony … Dmitri Shostakovich wrote his Symphony No. ( Log Out / 2 in B major, Op. This symphony, when I first heard it, perplexed me, to say the least. Concerto No. And the Mahlerian string sonorities and Tchaikovsky-like descriptions of fate and death are more old-fashioned influences than contemporary ones. But ten years on from the Revolution, ‘October’ had come to mean much more than the specific events of 1917. Initially described by the composer as a symphonic poem, the piece was eventually entitled ‘Symphonic Dedication – To October’. It has been likened to the opening chapter of a novel, setting the tone for all that follows. We’ll be seeing more Russian stuff from this period and onward in the coming weeks, so do stay tuned for that, and thanks so much for reading. But…I dunno…there’s something about no.2 that keeps me coming back for more, beginning with the intro, whose very teeming nebulousness marks it out as among the most boldly avant garde music he ever wrote. He was born Dmitri Dmitrievich Shostakovich on September 25, 1906, in St. Petersburg, Russia. The memoirist Ilya Ehrenburg has written of ‘a generation without tears, callous, a stranger to tender passion and to art’. Some revisions to this score were made, and the final version was played a few weeks later in Moscow. Change ), You are commenting using your Twitter account. Did the masterpieces that followed need the conflict, tension, and suffering of his time before they could flower from the composer’s pen? But we’ll excuse Shostakovich this symphonic misstep. 2, the Second, Third, Sixth, and Tenth string quartets, the Violin Concerto No. Who knows, if he’d been allowed to carry on composing in the same vein, we might have ended up with something like ’50s/’60s Ligeti – but 30 years sooner! But perhaps it was not only that work’s orchestration, with its soloistic piano part, that fascinated the student composer. Whatever the answers to those questions are, it is hard to misunderstand the composer’s feelings at the end of the piece. It is daylight, and false. The second movement then feels very much like a scherzo. In the 1960s, however, he was happy for them to be performed, yet towards the end of his life he begged his son not to conduct them! Maybe it was this combination of views that allowed him to write music that spoke to so many, and offended so few. 1 in F minor, Op. 2013 Preview SONG TIME Piano Concerto No. 1, Beethoven Piano Sonata no. Shostakovich himself called the première his ‘second birth’. The piece was written as a birthday present for Shostakovich’s nineteen-year-old son Maxim – himself an accomplished pianist. Dmitri Shostakovich, one of Russian culture's most acclaimed intellectuals who was censored under the dictatorship of Joseph Stalin, was an internationally recognized composer whose music was in over 100 films. Of course, the very specific demands of the symphony’s “programme” meant that he couldn’t keep that level of innovation up…and then there’s the glaring blemish that is that choral finale (although it’s interesting that, even amidst the supposed jubilation, DSCH can’t resist bringing back echoes of the opening…twice, in fact!). This apparent contradiction was a personality trait that would stay with him his whole life, and the sometimes juddering juxtaposition of the lighted-hearted with the profound marked his compositions from the very beginning. Written in 1929, in less than a month, the Third Symphony is another single-movement work with choral finale. The piece begins almost imperceptibly. Cellist/conductor Mstislav Rostropovich, who knew Shostakovich well, took a more universal approach when he said the Eleventh is “a symphony written in blood, a truly tragic work. It’s about 20-ish seconds, depending on ambient noise, before you hear the low mumbles of the ensemble in this first and longest movement. Shostakovich was bitterly attacked in the official press, and both the opera and the still unperformed Symphony No. 14 and subtitled To October, for the 10th anniversary of the October Revolution.It was first performed by the Leningrad Philharmonic Orchestra and the Academy Capella Choir under Nikolai Malko, on 5 November 1927. 5 in A, K. 219, ‘Turkish’. 44: I. Allegro brillante. As an added bonus, Maestro Litton is the piano soloist for the Piano Concerto No. It was a commission from Lev Shuglin, “a dedicated Bolshevik and head of the Propaganda Department of the State Music Publishing House (Muzsektor), to write a large orchestral work with a choral finale.” Shostakovich wanted to move away from the style of his first symphony, and had other projects he wanted to work on. Music Director Andrés Orozco-Estrada conducts Shostakovich’s Symphony No. Dmitri Shostakovich composed his Symphony No. 112, subtitled The Year of 1917, in 1961, dedicating it to the memory of Vladimir Lenin, leader of the Bolshevik Revolution, as he did his Symphony No. Or learn more… Or learn more… Recordings: Bernard Haitink: Royal … COMPOSED: Shostakovich composed his Violin Concerto No. And when the lively, actually musical second movement begins, it makes this long first section of the work seem like a moody warm-up. [O]ne is tempted simply to cut it off with a pair of scissors. But we have to end on a choral finale which “sets a text by Alexander Bezymensky praising Lenin and the revolution.” You can read the text of the finale here. 14 and subtitled To October, for the 10th anniversary of the October Revolution.It was first performed by the Leningrad Philharmonic Orchestra and the Academy Capella Choir under Nikolai Malko, on 5 November 1927.After the premiere, Shostakovich made some revisions to the score, and this final version was first played in Moscow … Dmitri Shostakovich, Mstislav Rostropovich, London Symphony Orchestra - Shostakovich: Symphonies Nos. But it gave him at least something to reach for, to accomplish, in writing his second symphony, no matter how he came to feel about the work’s merit. Shostakovich had given them their forced happy ending, a secret testament to the horrors of life under Stalin. I don’t know about you, but that doesn’t strike me as a particularly compelling elevator pitch. It’s a reminder that this work was commissioned, or as the case may be, demanded, from the composer by Shuglin, and the interesting circumstances he was in, wanting to compose something new, and being saddled with this patriotic idea. The symphony opens with a virtuosic brilliance heavily influenced by Stravinsky’s Petrushka. I agree with you utterly about the merits of no.3 (although I hope I’m not pre-empting what you yourself were going to say about it) – if ever there was a case of giving the authorities exactly what they wanted, in the form of a here-today-gone-tomorrow Socialist Realist musical slogan (albeit giving it voluntarily, which is savagely ironic given how they damn near broke him over the course of later life for daring to write anything other)! It’s marked largo, and the first real utterance of any kind, out of this jumble of sound, comes from the brass, in the form of more low growls, and eventually a trumpet solo. In 1927 Shostakovich was commissioned by the State Publishing House to honour the tenth anniversary of the October Revolution. But if they seem crude or illogical, that reflects the brutality and ideologically confused spirit of the age. Symphony No. 2 (Shostakovich) Last updated February 10, 2020. Symphony No. Solomon Volkov, of the second symphony’s finale. His recent opera The Nose had not been well received, and despite his previous success, he certainly would not have felt immune to the vulnerability of his time. 14 ‘To October’ 9 thoughts on “ Seeking Shostakovich: Listening to the Tenth Symphony (Part 2 of 2) ” T. March 31, 2014 at 3:19 AM It is so refreshing and lovely to read about you wanting joy for Shostakovich, because of your experience with his music. ‘I am in a terrible mood,’ he continued. I was touched by that. 11 in G minor, Op. Wiki says: Though Shostakovich had been commissioned by Muzsektor rather than Agitotdel, and was thus expected to produce a composition of abstract music instead of a propaganda piece, writing a short agitprop symphony seemed to solve all of Shostakovich’s problems. It is possible that within this increasingly fearful climate, Shostakovich decided to set Semyon Kirsanov’s unashamedly proletarian text in order to remain on good terms with the authorities. 12 in D minor, Op. So he’s got plenty to enjoy. The Soviet Union had discovered its first international star, the first to be trained solely under the new system rather than old imperialist Russia, and the authorities proclaimed him as an exaltation of the new at the expense of the old. The classicism is most apparent in the first movement, which follows 18th-century sonata form right down to repeating the exposition (the only Shostakovich Symphony that does). Such a work was entirely appropriate for the occasion for which it was being written. It would also be impossible for Muzsektor to turn it down, and was guaranteed at least some friendly press. 4 (1935–36) were withdrawn. Initially described by the composer as a symphonic poem, the piece was eventually entitled ‘Symphonic Dedication – To October’. 2.The symphony was premiered that October by the Leningrad Philharmonic Orchestra under conductor Yevgeny Mravinsky.This was the last Shostakovich symphony Mravinsky … A flute echoes the material, and there’s something of a fanfare, but almost not even any music here… As is stated on Wiki: Meant to portray the primordial chaos from which order emerged, instrumental voices merge in this 13-voice polyphonic beginning, like impulses released from the void. Find album reviews, stream songs, credits and award information for Shostakovich: … Shostakovich’s Fifteenth Symphony, like his Fifteenth String Quartet, was his last, and both works seem to illuminate the composer’s state of mind in his last years. The Fifth Symphony, finished by Shostakovich in 1937, is probably the most frequently performed of his symphonies, and it’s easy to understand why. Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in: You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. It is not obvious whether this embarrassment was musical or political, but in Shostakovich’s case, the two were normally connected. 2 in B, op. ( Log Out / Shostakovich may well have been a supporter of the philosophies that led to the October Revolution in the first place, but his inability to write any musical notes at all for the final lines, instead simply asking for the words to be declaimed without pitch, seems an indication of how he perceived the soulless climate of the time. Dmitri Shostakovich, Soundtrack: Children of Men. 2 in B, op. In many people’s minds it represented more an ideal of what the Revolution stood for, rather than the reality of regimented Bolshevik doctrine. Wikipedia explains it thusly, citing Ian MacDonald’s The New Shostakovich: Shostakovich composed his Second in a gestural, geometric “music without emotional structure” manner, with the intent of reflecting speech patterns and physical movements in a neo-realistic style. 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