Dmitri's Dacha

[relm1]

Please give this a listen when you can find the time:

https://www.youtube.com/v/CP-OJTOJHZU

Oh my god.  I REALLY loved this performance.  It actually brought me to tears it was so moving.  Damn that was good.

[Mirror Image]

Oh my god.  I REALLY loved this performance.  It actually brought me to tears it was so moving.  Damn that was good.

Glad you enjoyed it, relm1. I have been hooked on Rozhdestvensky's Shostakovich ever since I splurged and bought his cycle of the symphonies (one of the more expensive sets I've bought, but it was worth every penny).

[Roasted Swan]

Glad you enjoyed it, relm1. I have been hooked on Rozhdestvensky's Shostakovich ever since I splurged and bought his cycle of the symphonies (one of the more expensive sets I've bought, but it was worth every penny).

Quick note - I also really like Rozhdestvensky's Shostakovich but for the sake of clarity; the YouTube linked performance here is the LIVE recording I referenced in the archive set before NOT the studio recording that Mirror Image is discussing/showing as part of the Olympia/RCA cycle.  They ARE very similar technically and musically  - the live recording a fraction faster.

[Mirror Image]

Quick note - I also really like Rozhdestvensky's Shostakovich but for the sake of clarity; the YouTube linked performance here is the LIVE recording I referenced in the archive set before NOT the studio recording that Mirror Image is discussing/showing as part of the Olympia/RCA cycle.  They ARE very similar technically and musically  - the live recording a fraction faster.

Thanks for the clarification, Roasted Swan.

[aukhawk]

Rozhdestvensky is one of the small handful of conductors I've actually seen live in concert.  (Boult, Haitink, Britten, Rozhdestvensky, Downes, Handley, Sanderling - that's about it.)  The band he had at his disposal was the Leningrad PO, playing Tchaikovsky, the 4th Symphony I think.
I remember him as being a smallish man (or maybe I was just a very long way away  ) and a manic arm-waver and leaper-about.  These antics appeared to have little effect on the Leningraders, who were drilled to the nth degree with all bowing etc completely matched up in unison, stony-faced, unbending, machine-like.  Something of a mis-match - or maybe they were complementary to each other - I dunno.

[Herman]

It may be a cultural thing. In my experience Russian orchestra musicians, esp string players, seem to be quite impassive, usually sitting kind of laidback. I think this is because a lot of Russian musicians have internalized their experience playing in the opera pit, where the audience can't see.

Many Western orchestras, especially those with a lot of younger members, tend to look much more energized, because they want the audience to see they are into it.

The stereotypical Russian musician doesn't care about that.

[Roasted Swan]

Rozhdestvensky is one of the small handful of conductors I've actually seen live in concert.  (Boult, Haitink, Britten, Rozhdestvensky, Downes, Handley, Sanderling - that's about it.)  The band he had at his disposal was the Leningrad PO, playing Tchaikovsky, the 4th Symphony I think.
I remember him as being a smallish man (or maybe I was just a very long way away  ) and a manic arm-waver and leaper-about.  These antics appeared to have little effect on the Leningraders, who were drilled to the nth degree with all bowing etc completely matched up in unison, stony-faced, unbending, machine-like.  Something of a mis-match - or maybe they were complementary to each other - I dunno.

My memory of seeing Rozhdestvensky live was quite different - short for sure but he used a very long baton and his gestures were quite minimal - literally a flick of the wrist and even just a raised eyebrow!  But never a doubt who was in control.  Interestingly I saw the Moscow PO live recently with Yuri Simonov.  He's a seriously good conductor but also a big showman who knows how to entertain an audience - even as the band sat there (playing very well) will complete impassivity!

I've spent my entire professional career playing in British orchestras - never ONCE have I ever heard the opinion that we should move around a bit so the audience see we are "into it".  If you share a music stand with someone who likes to wave around like a tree in a storm its a bloomin' pain as half the time they're obscuring the music.  Most section leaders would not expect players behind them to wave around as it distracts.

[relm1]

My memory of seeing Rozhdestvensky live was quite different - short for sure but he used a very long baton and his gestures were quite minimal - literally a flick of the wrist and even just a raised eyebrow!  But never a doubt who was in control.  Interestingly I saw the Moscow PO live recently with Yuri Simonov.  He's a seriously good conductor but also a big showman who knows how to entertain an audience - even as the band sat there (playing very well) will complete impassivity!

I've spent my entire professional career playing in British orchestras - never ONCE have I ever heard the opinion that we should move around a bit so the audience see we are "into it".  If you share a music stand with someone who likes to wave around like a tree in a storm its a bloomin' pain as half the time they're obscuring the music.  Most section leaders would not expect players behind them to wave around as it distracts.

You know who is tiny?  Ashkenazy.  I first saw him live at the premiere of Scriabin/Nemtin Mysterium in front of two hundred performers and he seriously looked like a hobbit. 

[aukhawk]

Many Western orchestras, especially those with a lot of younger members, tend to look much more energized, because they want the audience to see they are into it.

All those strings players, leaning into their notes - I worry they'll put someone's eye out!

[Symphonic Addict]

I was revisiting the 15th from this set the other day:



No doubts this is a major work. If there is an utterly enigmatic work by a Soviet composer, it has to be this. The eeriness that permeates the piece helped by its unique orchestration make it a fascinating psychological journey through the composer's style.

For haters (if there were some) of the bombastic Shostakovich, this work may offer a different approach to his style.

For me it's one of those works that give more questions than answers. It easily be my favorite Shostakovich symphony for now.

[Mirror Image]

I was revisiting the 15th from this set the other day:



No doubts this is a major work. If there is an utterly enigmatic work by a Soviet composer, it has to be this. The eeriness that permeates the piece helped by its unique orchestration make it a fascinating psychological journey through the composer's style.

For haters (if there were some) of the bombastic Shostakovich, this work may offer a different approach to his style.

For me it's one of those works that give more questions than answers. It easily be my favorite Shostakovich symphony for now.

Yes! I love the 15th and what's interesting is to listen to this symphony and follow it up with String Quartet No. 15. Both works are quite enigmatic for sure, for me, this is a part of their allure.

[Symphonic Addict]

Yes! I love the 15th and what's interesting is to listen to this symphony and follow it up with String Quartet No. 15. Both works are quite enigmatic for sure, for me, this is a part of their allure.

A tremendous couple for sure. The SQ may even be more intriguing than the Symphony. Definitely his late style packs a lot of mystery I find nothing less than fascinating.

[Herman]

If you're choosing, I recommend you go 14th.

Speking of nr 14, I don't understand why Fischer-Dieskau was ever allowed close to this work. I have two recordings with him singing, with Haitink and with Bertini and his singing is really terrible in its mannerisms.

[Mirror Image]

A tremendous couple for sure. The SQ may even be more intriguing than the Symphony. Definitely his late style packs a lot of mystery I find nothing less than fascinating.

Yes, indeed. Shostakovich's SQs, in general, are an incredible body of work. I still come back to these works with great frequency. I'd like to get more familiar with some of the symphonies that I don't know too well like the 13th and 14th. I remember the 13th ('Babi Yar') knocking my socks off the last time I heard it. The 14th was a harder sell, but I'm beginning to appreciate it more and more.

[Maestro267]

I listened to the "Babi Yar" earlier, for the first time in a little while. While the arrival of B flat major for the finale feels more positive than the rest of the symphony, it still feels very clouded over by something, I don't know what. And the final touch of the bell stroke to bring us full circle right at the very end.

[Karl Henning]

Speking of nr 14, I don't understand why Fischer-Dieskau was ever allowed close to this work. I have two recordings with him singing, with Haitink and with Bertini and his singing is really terrible in its mannerisms.

Agreed.

[Symphonic Addict]

Yes, indeed. Shostakovich's SQs, in general, are an incredible body of work. I still come back to these works with great frequency. I'd like to get more familiar with some of the symphonies that I don't know too well like the 13th and 14th. I remember the 13th ('Babi Yar') knocking my socks off the last time I heard it. The 14th was a harder sell, but I'm beginning to appreciate it more and more.

The 14th is still too elusive for me. I haven't heard the right performance of it yet, I think.

[Mirror Image]

The 14th is still too elusive for me. I haven't heard the right performance of it yet, I think.

It's one that has given me some trouble as well.

[Herman]

The 14th is still too elusive for me. I haven't heard the right performance of it yet, I think.

It's kind of hard to hold the entire piece together, in the studio. DSCH's late works have a really substantial 'theatrical' or 'dramatic' element (think of the opening pages of the Viola Sonata) that is hard to reproduce on a cold record in a living room in nowheresville.
There is a performative tension that needs to make the listener part of the music. This is why the Viola Sonata or the SQ 15 have occasionally so little to offer in terms of notes, but a lot in musical drama.
SQ14 is quite profuse in comparison, it's almost like a big bunch of arias, and yet the same principle is at work.
I like the Pacifica version.

[Irons]

I read comments above on individual string quartets with great interest. The link below I find an invaluable tool for exploring this body of work.

http://www.quartets.de/