Dmitri's Dacha

[snyprrr]

"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...

I believe the Taneyev WAS on that one Russian off shoot cd label (garish, Pollack style color wooshes on the cover?)? Monumental???...Iyedunno!!! It's the only SQ I really want right now, but the only options are Brodsky and Sony/Ma.

Unless I can find an issue with 7, 11, & 15.

[Herman]

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

To me that's a no-brainer: the Borodin Quartet on Melodyia / EMI, sometime around 1980.

There's another Borodin SQ recording of nr 15 on Teldec, a later one.

[Tapio Dimitriyevich Shostakovich]

[Pettersson]

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.

Don't forget No. 6. Highlights: Sheer sad beauty after the 35 min. mark (CPO release) and a very sad and tragic ending. The ending of #7 is remarkable, but I think the ones of #6 and also 9 even more (9 has a loooong -5 minutes- string lamento in the end - also an almost persistent note which we know of Shosty 4/15 ending).

[Drasko]

Probably, the metronome marking that Shostakovich inked for the second movement is impossibly fast for any orchestras.

What would be the movement timing if Shostakovich metronome markings would be observed?
Mitropoulos drove NewYork Philharmonic through utterly breakneck speed to about three and a half minutes iirc.

Not sure (that's a relatively simple math problem I can do later when I fetch the score from upstairs).  Maksim Dmitiyevich's Allegro runs 4:18, Kondrashin's, 4:09.  Ančerl's runs a mighty brisk 3:51, and that is likely the fastest I've ever heard an orchestra manage it.

Mighty long them stairs, eh?   

[karlhenning]

Never did get up 'em, last night. Sorry!  Will try to remember when home this evening.

It'll be late . . . .

[karlhenning]

Thanks for the reminder that I should go listen to the youtube clip that Brian furnished of that Allegro . . . .

[Drasko]

At your leisure, I'm just plain curious.

[DFO]

Shosta and friends...

[karlhenning]

The second movement, Allegro, of the Symphony № 10 in E Minor, Opus 93, bears a tempo marking of half = 176.

The movement consists of 356 measures total, predominantly in 2/4:

2/4 measures: 349
3/4 measures: 7

I'm going to skip that finer math which would yield a precise* "theoretical timing", and cut to the generalizing chase with the observation that, at a tempo of a half-note = 176, there are 176 measures of 2/4 to the minute, and two minutes of play would thus rip through 352 measures. "By the metronome," then, the piece supposedly runs scarcely more than two minutes.  So my rough recollectio/estimation is vindicated:

Probably, the metronome marking that Shostakovich inked for the second movement is impossibly fast for any orchestra.  But Ančerl and the Czech Phil make an exhilirating attempt at it!

However . . . what if the half-note in the metronome marking is a misprint for quarter-note = 176?  At 176 quarter-notes to the minute, a quarter-note = .341 seconds, and the ratio yield:

349 mm. of 2/4 = 238 seconds = 3'58
7 mm. of 3/4 = 7 seconds

Total 'theoretical' duration = 4:05

. . . Maksim Dmitriyevich's Allegro runs 4:18, Kondrashin's, 4:09.  Ančerl's runs a mighty brisk 3:51, and that is likely the fastest I've ever heard an orchestra manage it.

My score is a Kalmus printing of an older edition of the score, and in fact, I do not find any copyright information in the score;  so I wonder if the newer definitive Shostakovich edition amends the metronome marking at all? (Time for another visit to the NEC library.)

* Normally, I should say "precise (barring the necessary and inevitable musical 'relaxations' in phrasing)", only this movement seems to me an obvious case of no such relaxation of any of the phrases;  it just plows on inexorably until the final bar.

[karlhenning]

yeah, let's all go back to the Dmitri Dacha

so i'm locking this thread

bye Greg's Shosty thread.....


i won't miss you.........





i said i wuzn't gunna cwy......

Here

[Drasko]

The second movement, Allegro, of the Symphony № 10 in E Minor, Opus 93, bears a tempo marking.....

Thanks! Scarcely more than two minutes to me looks completely impossible, it has to be mistake. While 4:05 seems perfectly logical. Evgeny Aleksandrovich, whose overall pacing of the symphony is very much to my liking (first movement at around 22:20) takes it at 4:00-4:07 and it sounds pretty convincing. That being said the Ancerl is still big favorite (inspite being trifle quick).

For the fun of it here is Mitropoulos, whipping NewYorkers into frenzy, live october 1955 in Athens. Clocking at hard to believe 3:25
[mp3=200,20,0,left]http://www.fileden.com/files/2008/7/24/2018019/dsch10mitrnypathens55.mp3[/mp3] 

[karlhenning]

Glad to be of service! And thanks for that Mitropoulos clip; I'll give that a listen tomorrow-ish.

[karlhenning]

Thanks! Scarcely more than two minutes to me looks completely impossible, it has to be mistake. While 4:05 seems perfectly logical. Evgeny Aleksandrovich, whose overall pacing of the symphony is very much to my liking (first movement at around 22:20) takes it at 4:00-4:07 and it sounds pretty convincing. That being said the Ancerl is still big favorite (inspite being trifle quick).

I wonder how fast Dmitri Dmitriyevich &al. take that Allegro in the archival two-piano recording (and what the overall timing is).  I should find it of interest, without necessarily taking it as definitive . . . Shostakovich was a nervous fellow (quite understandably), and I get an impression from sundry accounts that he tended to push tempi.  A lot of his music is long-breathed, and needs space;  but a man in his position dreads that an audience might find his music "boring" . . . .

In all events, I think all these recordings I've mentioned (Maksim Dmitriyevich, Kondrashin, Ančerl) are 'within a reasonable range of' the marking, and I truly like them all.  Agreed that the Ančerl has a special lustre.

[Drasko]

I wonder how fast Dmitri Dmitriyevich &al. take that Allegro in the archival two-piano recording (and what the overall timing is)....

21:03, 3:49 (3:41 actually), 12:01, 10:46

You might be able to stream the whole thing, try clicking on Прослушать
http://www.russiandvd.com/store/product.asp?sku=32070&genreid=

[karlhenning]

Thanks!

[greg]

Thanks! Scarcely more than two minutes to me looks completely impossible, it has to be mistake. While 4:05 seems perfectly logical. Evgeny Aleksandrovich, whose overall pacing of the symphony is very much to my liking (first movement at around 22:20) takes it at 4:00-4:07 and it sounds pretty convincing. That being said the Ancerl is still big favorite (inspite being trifle quick).

For the fun of it here is Mitropoulos, whipping NewYorkers into frenzy, live october 1955 in Athens. Clocking at hard to believe 3:25
[mp3=200,20,0,left]http://www.fileden.com/files/2008/7/24/2018019/dsch10mitrnypathens55.mp3[/mp3] 

Now that's crazy.....
sure it isn't sped up?

[karlhenning]

And a footnote.

[Tapio Dimitriyevich Shostakovich]

At the other end, Sanderling with his BSO takes 4:39. EDIT: It's 4:34 without silence. This is what I'm used to. The whole Symphony is 55:23. Sanderlidace?

[karlhenning]

At the other end, Sanderling with his BSO takes 4:39. EDIT: It's 4:34 without silence. This is what I'm used to.

Pending actual audition, I am apt to consider that just plain too slow.

[karlhenning]

Very excited about the "abandoned trunk of a Ninth" now out on Naxos.