Dmitri's Dacha

[bhodges]

Last night's production of The Nose was pretty amazing, and I still can't quite believe that Shostakovich was only 22 when he wrote it.  (The program observes that neither Mozart nor Rossini had completed operas of comparable stature at that age.)  The production is designed by South African artist William Kentridge, who uses a combination of live action and animation to extraordinary effect.  I don't think I've ever seen such complex animation used on a stage this large.  Many sequences are very funny, with the giant nose running all over the stage, across catwalks, etc.

Valery Gergiev conducted, magnificently, and Paulo Szot is the lead character who wakes up to find his nose missing.  Szot was excellent, making his Met debut after winning a Tony award for South Pacific.  The rest of the cast are all wonderful but too numerous too name; the opera has some 80 roles, sung by about 30 people--a huge cast.

But the real star is the score, which (at least on first hearing) uses a gigantic orchestra with Webern-like precision and lightness.  The percussion section has a field day, with lots of gongs, more uses of the ratchet than in any piece I've ever heard, and near the end, a plaintive passage for the flexatone (sounds sort of like a musical saw).   It is one of the most radical, experimental scores I've heard from this composer.  (I'll be getting the Gergiev/Mariinsky recording at some point, which came out last year and got great reviews.) 

The sold-out house (!) saved its biggest cheers for Kentridge, who came out at the very end.  Usually in a new production, the designers come out only during the opening night, but I hope they will have him come out for all the remaining performances.  He certainly deserves it.

The opera will be broadcast on the radio (and various Internet outlets) during the regular Met Saturday afternoon broadcast tomorrow, for anyone interested--although a pity that one can't experience Kentridge's amazing vision that way. 

--Bruce

[PaulR]

Last night's production of The Nose was pretty amazing, and I still can't quite believe that Shostakovich was only 22 when he wrote it.  (The program observes that neither Mozart nor Rossini had completed operas of comparable stature at that age.)  The production is designed by South African artist William Kentridge, who uses a combination of live action and animation to extraordinary effect.  I don't think I've ever seen such complex animation used on a stage this large.  Many sequences are very funny, with the giant nose running all over the stage, across catwalks, etc.

Valery Gergiev conducted, magnificently, and Paulo Szot is the lead character who wakes up to find his nose missing.  Szot was excellent, making his Met debut after winning a Tony award for South Pacific.  The rest of the cast are all wonderful but too numerous too name; the opera has some 80 roles, sung by about 30 people--a huge cast.

But the real star is the score, which (at least on first hearing) uses a gigantic orchestra with Webern-like precision and lightness.  The percussion section has a field day, with lots of gongs, more uses of the ratchet than in any piece I've ever heard, and near the end, a plaintive passage for the flexatone (sounds sort of like a musical saw).   It is one of the most radical, experimental scores I've heard from this composer.  (I'll be getting the Gergiev/Mariinsky recording at some point, which came out last year and got great reviews.) 

The sold-out house (!) saved its biggest cheers for Kentridge, who came out at the very end.  Usually in a new production, the designers come out only during the opening night, but I hope they will have him come out for all the remaining performances.  He certainly deserves it.

The opera will be broadcast on the radio (and various Internet outlets) during the regular Met Saturday afternoon broadcast tomorrow, for anyone interested--although a pity that one can't experience Kentridge's amazing vision that way. 

--Bruce

yeah, the production was amazing.  I am glad I was able to fit the show into my schedule, even if it meant flying to NYC from Buffalo for just a total of 2 days there!  The set itself was really something.  I tried to explain it to people, but couldn't quite find the right words for it.  It was just a really fun score.

I really liked Szot.  Never heard of him before, but I thought he did a fantastic job.  What a way to debut at the Met!  But he was fantastic, but so was everyone else.  One of my favorite scenes was the ending declaration of the plot with the 3 people.  The whole production was well done.

I really hope this comes out on DVD someday.  I would definitely buy it, maybe even pre-order it!

[jlaurson]

On boogers, Shostakovich, and dangerous first impressions:
http://www.weta.org/fmblog/?p=1875

[Sergeant Rock]

On boogers, Shostakovich, and dangerous first impressions:
http://www.weta.org/fmblog/?p=1875

Great review of the Mandelring recording, Jens...and appropriate this week since the Mandelbäume are in bloom in the Quartet's hometown (Neustadt) and surrounding area. I already have the Borodin, Fitzwilliam and Rubio but the Mandelring cycle is tempting.

Sarge

[vandermolen]

A plug here for the Leonard Slatkin performances here (on RCA). I find that I play his version of Symphony No 8 more than any other recording (I have quite a few) - it may not be as dramatic as Mravinsky etc but I think that it is beautifully played and the very moving end section is very affecting - I have also just found a second hand copy of Slatkin's St Louis version of Symphony No 4, which on initial listening seems to be just as good. Like Andre Previn I find that, these days, Slatkin is rather underrated (his Vaughan Williams cycle for example).

[kishnevi]

Regarding the Borodin Quartet, there is this Virgin double disc with five quartets on it.  What do you call a third of a cycle?

2, 3, 7, 8 and 12 are the quartets involved here.  These recordings were made in London in 1990, so they are independent of the full Borodin cycles. (One Amazon review mentions a somewhat different lineup from the one that recorded the full set.)

[jlaurson]

Regarding the Borodin Quartet, there is this Virgin double disc with five quartets on it.  What do you call a third of a cycle?

Tricycle?

Don't actually like those late recordings all that much.

[Tapio Dimitriyevich Shostakovich]

Renovated and repainted my living room yesterday. A good day, because currently I haven't got much time for lengthy music very often.... A lot of time for listening to the 8th Symphony properly. I listened to it twice. This time it really worked for me, especially the long first movement. Why did it work? It brought me to tears for a moment I was a bit disappointed by the final movement, but this is still a first impression.

[Scarpia]

Listened to the first two movements of Shostakovich's sole viola sonata. 



The recording by Bashmet is apparently out of print.

A very interesting piece, Shostakovich's last complete work.  The first movement is sort of sparse and bleak, the second Shostakovich's trademark sarcasm.  I put off the third movement, which is apparently a 17 minute dirge that I was not ready to take.  Interesting use of the sonority of the viola throughout.

[The new erato]

Listened to the first two movements of Shostakovich's sole viola sonata. 
The recording by Bashmet is apparently out of print.

It's on Regis:

[Scarpia]

It's on Regis:

Not the same recording, and I have a general preference for non-Richter recordings.   There is another interesting recording where the violin and viola sonatas have been transformed in to concertos (effectively) by transcribing the piano part for orchestra.



Have not heard that one.

[Scarpia]

this ought to be good ... so .. what's your problem with Richter's musicianship?

Nothing in particular, the few recordings of his that I had didn't grab me.  Most recently I listened to his recordings of Schumann solo piano music, and it was too smooth.  The same music seemed more engaging when performed by Pollini.

Besides that, usually the Richter recordings are made at a concert at an Italian Railway station somewhere.

[Brian]

On Re-hearing the Tenth after 365 Days

I've just finished listening to Shostakovich's Tenth Symphony. The last time I heard it was on June 30, 2009, on my iPod, in the car on my family's return from a road trip out to Utah and the Grand Canyon. Location: somewhere on Interstate 10 in rural west Texas. Over the course of the road trip I had heard the Tenth twice (the other time was in Albuquerque), the Fifth several times in different performances, and Khachaturian's Cello Concerto on six (!) occasions. I was all Russianed out.

Then for a while I just didn't listen to the Tenth. It wasn't intentional; it just slipped the mind. I went to college in the fall and planned to give it a play to celebrate going back, but didn't have the time. Eventually I decided to save it for a special occasion. By December I decided to just wait until June 30 rolled around again. June 30 came. I listened to a CD for MusicWeb and went to bed early. Finally carved out an hour for the Tenth tonight, starring Herbert von Karajan and the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra.

I should note that my familiarity with the symphony is purely from listening; I have never seen a score.

Impressions

First of all, how'd I go this long without listening to one of my favorite pieces? I just wanted to curl up in every minute of it ... thought a few times that I could just as easily have listened to it every day for a year. (This is, of course, not actually true.) This felt like Hemingway on his first day back from a year of shaving. Or something.

The Tenth Symphony is the culmination of the "Russian Romantic" symphonic tradition; it is the apotheosis of same. Had Rachmaninov, Lyapunov, Glazunov and Bortkiewicz seen it to its grave? No, they'd merely set up this fearsome volley. This symphony is, like Tchaikovsky's Fifth or Rachmaninov's Second (much more like the latter), based entirely on a simple motif stated at the outset. The first movement is built entirely on that motif, and I was really impressed at how much of the first seven to eight minutes of the symphony Shostakovich was able to repeat at and after the climax. Except for the interjection of the flute tune at 6:00, which serves as a catalyst for the huge central upheaval and provides just a tiny bit of contrast, this movement is really just one huge arc repeated, the second statement different enough from the first to make the double-arc combine for one.

A joke I'd been repeating during my Year of No Tenth was, "There oughta be a law of orchestration stating that the piccolo is expressly prohibited unless you are Shostakovich." It grew out of my frustration at how lesser composers fail to understand how to use the instrument: an unnecessary piccolo line, only about four seconds long, tarnishes the otherwise glorious opening movement Atterberg's Eighth; Johann Strauss' piccolos drive me up the wall just as much as his gift for melodies makes me sigh with pleasure; the piccolo at the end of Dvorak's Second has a great musical idea but is just too lightweight to penetrate the texture.

There are, of course, good uses of the piccolo. The two-note part in the storm of Beethoven's Sixth. Schulhoff's Concertino. Dorman's Piccolo Concerto. And all the other examples I can think of, all of them, are in Shostakovich. The Fifth. The Ninth. Others I am forgetting at the moment. And then there's the end of the first movement here. I Googled "best piccolo solo" and all the results said, "Stars and Stripes Forever." Undoubtedly a contender. I GMG-searched for "best piccolo solo" and there weren't any results. Now the Tenth is the first. Except, of course, that it's a piccolo duo, isn't it? And it is so darn good!

I was surprised by the third movement. Basically, it has three themes, the opening string tune (which is exactly the same theme as that of the second movement, which is in turn just the opening motif of the first movement extended a bit - this is one of the most tightly argued symphonies since Beethoven's Fifth, despite its length), the DSCH theme, and that weird foreign horn call. What surprised me about this movement, coming back after a year, is that it basically just alternates between the three in whatever order it pleases, and there's basically nothing else to it. It just bounces from motif to motif the whole time and yet rather than sounding senseless or academic or hopelessly confused, it's remarkably cohesive. I was also surprised and impressed to hear the first minute of the symphony replayed almost verbatim and as originally orchestrated, providing the base line to stuff which is easier to notice. Wow!

In Rachmaninov's Symphony No 2, the finale is the first movement to feature a melody that's not based on stair-step ascending intervals: that huge sweeping romantic Hollywood tune that breaks the symphony's mold and carries it over the threshold to a happy ending. Shostakovich's Tenth pre-empts this somewhat by introducing DSCH and the horn call into the third movement - but DSCH is the real challenger to the symphony's motto, and of course it wins. He's dancing on Stalin's grave, isn't he? Emphasis on dancing; this might be the most conventional of the movements, even down to the Return of the Scary Opening Motif right before the final coda (think Tchaikovsky Four). But the Scary Opening Motif has already been defeated: it is in that melancholy, wistful sigh of the (muted?) violins which serves as centerpiece to the introduction's reprise. And then, having laid the opening motif to rest once and for all, DSCH gets up and dances on the grave.

Conclusion

I chose Karajan because the final bars on his recording sound rich and full and gloriously final; on Barshai, they seem to just taper up into the bright acoustic. The flip side of the coin is that Barshai's clarinet solo in mvt. I is much more darkly brooding. I've got Skrowaczewski, too, but don't remember it very well.

All in all, as glorious an experience as it ever was, and I'm glad this symphony is back in my listening. I would not hesitate to rank it one of the great symphonies of all time, alongside contenders like Beethoven 5 and Brahms 4. It is, to my mind, surely not just a great symphony by a Russian, but the great triumph of the fate-obsessed, heart-on-sleeve Russian symphonic tradition which began with Rubinstein and Balakirev, achieved concert-hall popularity with Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninov, and reached its raison d'être in 1953, when a composer turned to this seemingly burnt-out form to create some of his most personal music - and some of his most explicitly Russian outrage against the climate in which he was trapped.

I don't particularly find it useful to see Shostakovich's symphonies as reactions to, or depictions of, or portraits of, Communism; when I first began to get "into" the Tenth, it was cool to imagine the scherzo as "Stalin himself," or the third movement as "Shostakovich versus the oppressors." Now that interpretation is not as interesting as it had been. The only serious interest it has for me is its implications for the argument that this was the inevitable product of a flexible and tortured artistic genius, and for the hope, maybe the delusion, that had Shostakovich been given free rein to write whatever he wanted wherever he wanted, such a masterwork as this would not have been lost.

[Scarpia]

Karajan recorded it twice, in the 60's and in the 80's.  Which one are you listening to?

[Mirror Image]

I seldom listen to Shostakovich. Not out of personal dislike or anything, because he composed some very good music, but I just don't find myself connecting to his music as much as I do other composers.


That said, I do enjoy Symphonies Nos. 4, 7, and 10 the most of his symphonies. I also really enjoyed "Violin Concerto No. 1" and "Piano Concerto No. 1."


Other than these works, I'm just not moved by his sound-world or what it is he's trying to convey in his music. Given his history, it's hard know how really felt, but I know this is just my own opinion and obviously doesn't reflect how other's feel about his music.

[Archaic Torso of Apollo]

I would not hesitate to rank it one of the great symphonies of all time, alongside contenders like Beethoven 5 and Brahms 4.

I agree.

I don't particularly find it useful to see Shostakovich's symphonies as reactions to, or depictions of, or portraits of, Communism; when I first began to get "into" the Tenth, it was cool to imagine the scherzo as "Stalin himself," or the third movement as "Shostakovich versus the oppressors." Now that interpretation is not as interesting as it had been.

I agree with this too. I would modify it by saying that of course DSCH's symphonies have something to do with the circumstances he found himself in, but their relation to those circumstances is not simple or straightforward. (Volkov and Ian MacDonald deserve a lot of the blame for this.) The 10th Symphony is great as a piece of music - whether Stalin is reflected in it, or not, has no bearing on this.

[Brian]

Thanks for those comments, Velimir. We're in agreement.

Karajan recorded it twice, in the 60's and in the 80's.  Which one are you listening to?

The 1980s recording.

[Tapio Dimitriyevich Shostakovich]

Brian, your review makes me wish to listen to the tenth again. It's the Karajan Gold one, right? I just listened to #10 twice and I realized it's got potential for me; but still did not get into it. Oh and there's just so few time for music listening at the moment
As of now, I spent much more time on Symphony No. 15, 1 and 8 (all Sanderling/Berlin SO) - my favourite pieces of the composer, in exactly that order.

@Mirror Image: If you can't love #15, you're lost. OK I admit, this is maybe quite subjective You need to love the darkness. And it must be the Sanderling/BSO. Sloooow.

EDIT: Oh, and I've never listened to Brahms #4!?! Well, I'm 39, so maybe there'll be some time left.

[karlhenning]

TTT

EDIT: Oh, and I've never listened to Brahms #4!?! Well, I'm 39, so maybe there'll be some time left.

All right, your assignment: Listen to the Brahms Fourth before the end of August.

You can do it!

[karlhenning]

My Shosta collection:

Haitink Complete Decca Symphonies
Karajan 10
Bernstein 5 and 9
Fitzwilliam SQs
I've got the Fugues but I can't remember who the heck it is.

A couple of incidental, but good, performances of the symphonies (Barshai)

I'm really off topic now, because I'm listening to Whitesnake's In the Heart of the City. Sorry!

Andy, have you listened to the Fourteenth Symphony in the Haitink set?

The passacaglia fourth movement of the Eighth Symphony?

Apart from wishing to draw your attention to these : ) . . .

. . . may I suggest the Piano Quintet in g minor, Opus 57; Piano Trio № 2 in e minor, Opus 67; and the Blok Romances for soprano & piano trio, Opus 127.