In fact, I’d already made that note before I’d gone back to read the end of the Wikipedia article, which cites the quote that opens this article. Dmitri Shostakovich wrote his Symphony No. 3. Change ), You are commenting using your Facebook account. In time, this much repeated role would become as much a burden to him as it was a saving grace. 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. 14 no. Composed at the age of 18, Shostakovich’s First Symphony was written to fulfill the graduation requirements of the Leningrad Conservatory (earning him the equivalent of a college music degree), and would take the international music world by storm the following year. The memoirist Ilya Ehrenburg has written of ‘a generation without tears, callous, a stranger to tender passion and to art’. I was touched by that. Initially described by the composer as a symphonic poem, the piece was eventually entitled ‘Symphonic Dedication – To October’. Shostakovich said at the time that he ‘always wanted to create music that reflects our era, and the thoughts and the feelings of the Soviet person’, but it is unclear whether he intended this symphony’s opening thematic chaos and abstractly expressionistic textures to represent the hardship of before the Revolution or the emotional blandness that followed. Voting game from the old Amazon forum: Shostakovich symphonies: 1 - Symphony #10 in E minor, Op. 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. Concerto No. 13, ‘Pathetique’, Mozart Violin Concerto no. But this relatively comfortable middle-class childhood would not last long. 2.The symphony was premiered that October by the Leningrad Philharmonic Orchestra under conductor Yevgeny Mravinsky.This was the last Shostakovich symphony Mravinsky … These early, enigmatic works point to a lifetime of ambiguity and double-speak. 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. It received its premiere on November 5, 1927 with the Leningrad Philharmonic under Nikolai Malko. While Prokofiev’s second symphony was a head scratcher not only for the audience but the composer himself, it has gained recognition in more recent times as a blisteringly intense, genius work, at least by some. Maybe it was this combination of views that allowed him to write music that spoke to so many, and offended so few. Symphony No. Still, for me it stands as a fascinating glimpse of the composer who might have been but for the Lady Macbeth debacle, etc. 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.”. It is daylight, and false. Initially described by the composer as a symphonic poem, the piece was eventually entitled ‘Symphonic Dedication – To October’. ( Log Out /  Shostakovich’s last wartime symphony was the Ninth (1945), commissioned by the state to commemorate the USSR’s victory over Germany. Dmitri Shostakovich, Soundtrack: Children of Men. 2, Op. But the style was about to change. Such a work was entirely appropriate for the occasion for which it was being written. 1, and the Symphony … It could be that his choice of key was even intended as a public show of respect for Beethoven, who used the same heroic tonality for his own Third Symphony. Or learn more… Or learn more… Recordings: Bernard Haitink: Royal … He was back in the party’s good graces—for the time being. Did the masterpieces that followed need the conflict, tension, and suffering of his time before they could flower from the composer’s pen? The idea of October was not necessarily the same thing as its reality. This was considered Klangflächenmusik (cluster composition) before the term was officially coined. This is followed by the most forced of perorations maybe ever written in music history. After a deceptively light opening, the music hurls itself helter-skelter into a series of episodes that seem to collide up against each other with little meaning or purpose, sometimes breathlessly agitated, other times disconcertingly empty. ( Log Out /  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. Program Notes: Shostakovich Cello Concerto No. Doubts and problems. (This was not performed until 1961, during the Kruschev era.) But ten years on from the Revolution, ‘October’ had come to mean much more than the specific events of 1917. 10 Initially proud of these works, Shostakovich proclaimed them to be failures in the 1950s. 2 in G Major, Op.   Whatever the answers to those questions are, it is hard to misunderstand the composer’s feelings at the end of the piece. Beethoven was upheld as the artist most completely in tune with the social aspirations of his time and it was felt by many post-Revolutionary Russians that his death marked the start of the decline of the symphony as an art form altogether – one that could never be resurrected under the rampant capitalism of the west. 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. The unexpected death of his father in 1922 only made matters worse. The Ninth is sometimes called Shostakovich's classical symphony because of its brevity, form, and frequent chamber character. Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in: You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. 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. Wiki mentions “the notion of “industrial” symphonies intended to inspire the proletariat.” Thank goodness that phase is over. 20 ‘The First of May’ © Mark Wigglesworth 2012. Some revisions to this score were made, and the final version was played a few weeks later in Moscow. He was born Dmitri Dmitrievich Shostakovich on September 25, 1906, in St. Petersburg, Russia. It is perhaps only the thoughts and feelings themselves that are not yet fully focused. 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. This choice may have been influenced at least partially by Vsevolod Meyerhold’s theory of biomechanics. All this darkness suffocates me. 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. BBC Proms 2007: Prom 48Royal Albert HallAugust 19, 2007Simón Bolivar Youth Orchestra of VenezuelaGustavo Dudamel, conductorShostakovich Symphony 10mvt II. Stalin’s grip on power was starting to make itself felt. 5 at our European Tour Preview Concerts with Hilary Hahn on February 23, 24 & 25. 1 in F minor, Op. ‘I am in a terrible mood,’ he continued. [O]ne is tempted simply to cut it off with a pair of scissors. 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 … It’s turning out pretty gloomy.’ The second half of the piece is certainly much more tragic in vein. Alban Berg was even moved to write a flattering letter of appreciation. And completing his Symphony No 4 – a big brute of a work – he withdrew the planned Leningrad premiere in '36, after denunciation by the State. In 1927 Shostakovich was commissioned by the State Publishing House to honour the tenth anniversary of the October Revolution. 2 in B, op. 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. 3 in E flat major, Op. Shostakovich was surprisingly unequivocal in what he thought of it, referring to the words as ‘quite disgusting… very bad poetry… abominable’. It’s chamber-like for a long stretch, but the chaos increases as the rest of the ensemble joins. After the 1917 Revolution, Shostakovich’s bourgeois family background proved a distinct disadvantage in the new social order that ensued. Shostakovich had started to experience some of that ‘struggle’ first-hand. But unlike its predecessor, this was not a commissioned piece and, as such, it raises interesting questions about the composer’s freely made decision to celebrate the international labour movement’s May Day celebrations. Starting piano lessons with his mother when he was eight, he was writing a Pushkin-inspired opera by the age of nine. The third movement continues the acceleration of the work, but is now transparent and light, with a violin solo, accompanied by one woodwind after another joining the party. 2 Seattle Symphony Judith Fong Conductor Emeritus Ludovic Morlot conducts the Seattle Symphony in music by Caroline Shaw, Shostakovich and Beethoven featuring cellist Alisa Weilerstein on Thursday, November 12, 2020 at 7:30pm on Seattle Symphony Live . Here, Shostakovich brings his emotions back under control and turns to mockery. And here he is: we are this week and next discussing the second and third symphonies of Prokofiev and… Shostakovich. 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. 2, the Second, Third, Sixth, and Tenth string quartets, the Violin Concerto No.   14 ‘To October’ 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!). 7 "Leningrad" Kurt Masur & New York Philharmonic Shostakovich: Piano Concertos No. It is challenging, undoubtedly harsh, perhaps even puzzling, but I am among those who has become spellbound by it. 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. Shostakovich’s second symphony, however, (and third, as we shall see) was not only not a roaring success at its premiere, but has continued to be recognized as some of his weakest work in the form. Born in 1906, Dmitri Dmitriyevich Shostakovich was a prodigious child as both pianist and composer. 1 and 2 Christopher Lyndon-Gee, Michael Houstoun & New Zealand Symphony … It has been likened to the opening chapter of a novel, setting the tone for all that follows. 47 (1937) Even today, people wonder just what Shostakovich was trying to say. 9 in E, op. 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: Symphony No. The work was composed for the tenth anniversary of the October Revolution. Change ), Shostakovich Symphony 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. 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. Explain that Shostakovich put secret messages and codes into his music as a clever way of avoiding Stalins rules. Nervous tension and sarcastic wit, passion and intelligence, contemplation and action, nobility and banality – all expressed with an economy of means that is simultaneously subtle and direct. The symphony opens with a virtuosic brilliance heavily influenced by Stravinsky’s Petrushka. 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 piece begins almost imperceptibly. 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. Shostakovich was bitterly attacked in the official press, and both the opera and the still unperformed Symphony No. 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. His friend and dedicatee of the First Symphony, Mikhail Kvadri, had recently been arrested and shot for ‘counterrevolutionary activity’; the dedication was officially removed from the score. Find album reviews, stream songs, credits and award information for Shostakovich: Symphony No. His well-educated mother had to work thirteen-hour days as a cashier and Shostakovich was forced to spend many after-school hours as a silent-movie pianist to help the family cope with the hardships of the post-Revolutionary economy. But for Shostakovich, it need not have been a question of one or the other. But perhaps it was not only that work’s orchestration, with its soloistic piano part, that fascinated the student composer. ‘Sometimes I just want to shout. 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. Even removing the choral finale, which sounds wholly uninspired, we’re still left with a piece that lacks much motivation. Symphony No. 93 (1953) 2 - Symphony #5 in D minor, Op. If we think about it more like a Strauss tone poem than a Shostakovich symphony, maybe it’ll seem more convincing. It is unremittingly tragic, and not so much about 1905 or 1956, perhaps, as about the persistently tragic pattern in human events. 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. Symphony No. I don’t know about you, but that doesn’t strike me as a particularly compelling elevator pitch. DMITRI DMITRIEVICH SHOSTAKOVICH BORN: September 25, 1906.Saint Petersburg DIED: August 9, 1975.Moscow. And when the lively, actually musical second movement begins, it makes this long first section of the work seem like a moody warm-up. 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