Dmitri's Dacha

Started by karlhenning, April 09, 2007, 08:13:49 AM

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karlhenning

Quote from: Herman on June 01, 2009, 03:18:59 AM
The best way to awaken someone to DSCH is take him or her to a concert.

That's certainly true.  Still, I am appreciating the recommended pieces . . . my view is clouded by too-encompassing enjoyment of the catalogue . . . .

karlhenning

QuoteViolin Concerto № 1
Piano Concerto № 2
Jazz Suite № 2
Piano Quintet
Symphony № 5
String Quartet № 8

Well, we have the two-disc set of five quartets at the shop, so I'll guess that the Opus 110 has already been tried, and (for the moment) found wanting.

This is a good crop of suggestions, thanks!  I must have a word with Epi, and we'll take it from there . . . .

karlhenning

First of June, folks: Dacha season is officially open.

snyprrr

Karl, just play your friend the SLOW mvmts., you know, the really beautiful ones (Piano Qnt., Trio No.2, cello sonata...pick a passacaglia). You shouldn't have played him Op.110...try the slow mvmt. of SQ No.6 for that. I know how easy it is to get the wrong impression of Shosty. Sometimes you just have to trick people (Sun Tzu). I don't think this guy can handel a whole 4-5 mvmt. piece yet.

Guido

Can we list Shostakovich's Passacaglias here? The most obvious one is the one from the first violin concerto - maybe the most beautiful thing that Shostakovich ever wrote. Which other ones are there?
Geologist.

The large print giveth, and the small print taketh away

karlhenning

Quote from: Guido on June 01, 2009, 01:11:27 PM
Can we list Shostakovich's Passacaglias here? The most obvious one is the one from the first violin concerto - maybe the most beautiful thing that Shostakovich ever wrote. Which other ones are there?

Is that the most obvious one?  ;)  I thought that designation would be the Intermezzo from Ledi Makbet . . .

Fourth movement of the Eighth Symphony . . . .

eyeresist

Karl, I think you should play your friend the Cello Concerto No. 1. It's the best thing by Shosty I've ever heard.

Dancing Divertimentian

New recording due out June 9th:

Gergiev/Mariinsky in The Nose.

Judging by Gergiev's past successes in opera this ought to be a recording to get. While the work itself of course is fully worthy of anyone's attention. 


Veit Bach-a baker who found his greatest pleasure in a little cittern which he took with him even into the mill and played while the grinding was going on. In this way he had a chance to have the rhythm drilled into him. And this was the beginning of a musical inclination in his descendants. JS Bach

George

Quote from: k a rl h e nn i ng on May 31, 2009, 02:41:56 PM
I have a co-worker who loves music, generally likes classical music, but somehow, he thinks he hates Shostakovich.

More for us!  8)

ChamberNut

Quote from: Dancing Divertimentian on June 04, 2009, 09:31:25 PM
New recording due out June 9th:

Gergiev/Mariinsky in The Nose.

Judging by Gergiev's past successes in opera this ought to be a recording to get. While the work itself of course is fully worthy of anyone's attention. 




Well, after seeing Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk, I'd be interested in seeing this one!

The new erato

Quote from: ChamberNut on June 05, 2009, 03:48:05 AM
Well, after seeing Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk, I'd be interested in seeing this one!
To get your nose in you mean? Don't expect anything similar.

karlhenning

Quote from: erato on June 05, 2009, 03:53:58 AM
To get your nose in you mean? Don't expect anything similar.

No, but it is still a fine aroma.

Mozart

I dove into the deep end of the pool today and heard the 8th string quartet...it's not jolly stuff is it? I was kind of surprised in a way how nothing was hidden, from the first hearing I heard everything clear and the 2nd and 3rd hearings added nothing new. It has to be the most depressing thing I've ever heard though...
"I am the musical tree, eat of my fruit and your spirit shall rejoiceth!"
- Amadeus 6:26

The new erato

Quote from: Mozart on June 05, 2009, 09:24:59 PM
It has to be the most depressing thing I've ever heard though...
Never heard Pettersson?

Mozart

Quote from: erato on June 05, 2009, 11:51:26 PM
Never heard Pettersson?

Nope first time I passed Brahms!
"I am the musical tree, eat of my fruit and your spirit shall rejoiceth!"
- Amadeus 6:26

greg

I suppose boredom can lead to adventurism, eh?

A clip from Pettersson's 7th:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jeuYzeqktAY

very much straightforward minor key with isolated dissonances, quite like the DSCH SQ 8.
This is the only thing I can get from youtube, since they took down that full recording of the 7th. Also, the 8th is worth listening to- even more tragic and hypnotic- really takes you down the depths of the subconscious like nothing else does.

snyprrr

"Mozart" would like Shosty's SQ No.6. Next to No.1, it's the most standard thing in DSCH, no? At least the most Haydnesque.

I think a lot of us are so Shosty-crazy (including myself) that we forget that not everyone likes the depressing stuff. And not everyone likes "sarcasm" in their music. Sym No.5 seems like something the Great Unwashed could enjoy... a "standard' sounding sym: tragic/heroic in the Brahmsian mold.

SQ No.8 Op.110 is definitely my least fav Shosty bar none. I think it's a shame that this is the piece many newbies hear first (Kronos?). I think it can turn off a lot of potential listeners to Shosty. I know it wouldn't have worked on me.

SQ No.7, however, is quite quirky and spunky, with some "whistle appeal."

Note how "Mozart" came to Shosty from Brahms. The Piano Qnt. would be perfect.

All I'm saying is, I've seen how easy it is to turn someone off of DSCH, but once I figured out the secret, I got everyone thinking Shosty was a tuneful Romantic. Then, once they're hooked...aha!... then you reel them in.

snyprrr

Can anyone wax poetic over any really really special recordings of SQ No.15?

I'm listening to Fitzwilliam now, and I'm not really taken: sounds kind of unsure (which is understandable). I've had "most" of the SQ sets out there (of the old guard), but I sold the Emerson last year (the last to go) to start fresh. So now I have zero Shosty SQs, and I really just want the most monumental No.15 I can find (I hope it's not the Emerson, otherwise I probably should have kept it!: they WERE pretty good, actually).

I remember the Brodsky disc, "End Games", with DSCH 15 and LvB 16, an interesting concept, but I don't remember the performance. One that I haven't heard is the Sony disc with Yo-Yo Ma (w/ Gubaidulina "Rejoice"). Perhaps that's a good one? Are there any other "mix" cds with only No.15?

I also seem to recall enjoying the Shostakovich Qrt./Olympia in the late SQs.

Archaic Torso of Apollo

Quote from: snyprrr on June 07, 2009, 09:27:19 PM

SQ No.8 Op.110 is definitely my least fav Shosty bar none.

Why? What turns you off about it?

Quote from: snyprrr on June 07, 2009, 09:38:33 PM
Can anyone wax poetic over any really really special recordings of SQ No.15?.....I really just want the most monumental No.15 I can find

"Monumental" in what way? I've heard several recordings of it (Fitzwilliam, Emerson, Shosty, coupla others) and liked all of them. My intro to the piece though was a recording by the Taneyev Quartet, an LP that I think has never appeared on CD. I recall it being "special," but maybe that's just because it was the first time I heard the 4tet and it was the music itself that struck me as special...
formerly VELIMIR (before that, Spitvalve)

"Who knows not strict counterpoint, lives and dies an ignoramus" - CPE Bach

snyprrr

Quote from: Spitvalve on June 07, 2009, 11:44:53 PM
Why? What turns you off about it?

The melodic curve. Maybe it's "too" perfect. It reminds me of a lost Bartok SQ. I mean, these aren't....

I suppose, when taken by itself and out of context, it's a perfect example of the "death of classical music," I mean, as the obvious tombstone that it is supposed to be.

It's not so much "me" being turned off as newbies who might get the wrong impression of DSCH. There are not really "obviously" beautiful melodic curves to this piece.

I garauntee that if I played it for my dear old mum she would get "that" look on her face, but if I played the slow mvmt. from No.6 she would surely say, "That's lovely, dear. (now go find a job!)"