Dmitri's Dacha

[jlaurson]

How is the Mandelring Quartet box set, Jeffrey? I own the Emerson's and the partial cycle from the original members of the Borodin Quartet on Chandos. I'm not a big fan of SQs, but the Mandelring has had me intrigued for awhile.

Mandelring DSCH:

First Impressions and Shostakovich

Shostakovich with the Mandelring Quartett

Best Recordings of 2011 (#9)

Notes from the 2011 Salzburg Festival ( 18 )
Shostakovich Cycle


In summary: They are a luxury edition addition to your collection, easy to enjoy... and I find them highly recommendable, but I'd never suggest that they are essential to a DSCH-SQ4t collection... certainly not given the few parameters you mention. They are, however, sufficiently different from the Emersons (and very, very different from the Borodins -- whose first or second set are the touchstone -- of course). First they're not live, no applause, better sound, broadly speaking with a rounder and smoother, more emotive beauty... less cool stringency. Speckless, for better or worse.

[Mirror Image]

Mandelring DSCH:

First Impressions and Shostakovich

Shostakovich with the Mandelring Quartett

Best Recordings of 2011 (#9)

Notes from the 2011 Salzburg Festival ( 18 )
Shostakovich Cycle


In summary: They are a luxury edition to your collection, easy to enjoy... and I find them highly recommendable, but I'd never suggest that they are essential to a DSCH-SQ4t collection... certainly not given the few parameters you mention. They are, however, sufficiently different from the Emersons (and very, very different from the Borodins -- whose first or second set are the touchstone -- of course). First they're not live, no applause, better sound, broadly speaking with a rounder and smoother, more emotive beauty... less cool stringency. Speckless, for better or worse.

Thanks, Jens! Much appreciated.

[calyptorhynchus]

I grew up listening to Shostakovich and knew most of his symphonies and other major works from my teens but for some reason I never listened to the Leningrad Symphony until this week. As I was listening to it I was struck by how completely unpropagandistic and unpatriotic a work it was, I was amazed, I had expected some piece of political music and instead here was a symphony that sounded pretty much like 4 and 6, grumpy, oppositional and definitely not 'soviet', with the famous war-theme depicting anything other than the Wehrmacht. (For my money 8 is much more of a war symphony, though the ending is hardly triumphant).

How did Shostakovich get away with it? I suppose his symphonies 2, 3, 11 and 12 are official works, but the rest are anything but, even 5 (which, objectively, is just as disaffected as 4, only put in a tighter form). If Shostakovich had been a poet or a novelist he would have been shot round about 1933. I'd be interested in people's thoughts on this.

[Mirror Image]

I grew up listening to Shostakovich and knew most of his symphonies and other major works from my teens but for some reason I never listened to the Leningrad Symphony until this week. As I was listening to it I was struck by how completely unpropagandistic and unpatriotic a work it was, I was amazed, I had expected some piece of political music and instead here was a symphony that sounded pretty much like 4 and 6, grumpy, oppositional and definitely not 'soviet', with the famous war-theme depicting anything other than the Wehrmacht. (For my money 8 is much more of a war symphony, though the ending is hardly triumphant).

How did Shostakovich get away with it? I suppose his symphonies 2, 3, 11 and 12 are official works, but the rest are anything but, even 5 (which, objectively, is just as disaffected as 4, only put in a tighter form). If Shostakovich had been a poet or a novelist he would have been shot round about 1933. I'd be interested in people's thoughts on this.

Some interesting thoughts. One question in your post stuck out like a sore thumb:

How did Shostakovich get away with it?

Without wearing my own hands out, let me give you the short answer: he got away with it because Stalin allowed him to, but, at the same time, Stalin kept a very close watch on Shostakovich's activities making sure he didn't get too far out of line. But one of the things we should bear in mind, Stalin had many of Shostakovich's close friends and his own sister exiled. This was his way of keeping him in check. This also caused Shostakovich to continually watch his back. Whether there are hidden messages in his music or not has been fiercely debated by scholars for many years. According to Michael Tilson Thomas, one reason why Shostakovich didn't get killed or exiled had to do with Stalin's own sentimental attachment to a song Shostakovich wrote, but I think Shostakovich was just smart enough to be careful about what he composed, especially after being blasted by Soviet propaganda papers after Stalin witnessed Lady Macbeth live. He remained on very thin ice from that moment on.

[eyeresist]

I think he also got away with it because he was generally acknowledged to be the greatest composer in the USSR. If he was gone, who was there to fill that vacancy? As a matter of national prestige, they couldn't do away with him.

[Mirror Image]

I think he also got away with it because he was generally acknowledged to be the greatest composer in the USSR. If he was gone, who was there to fill that vacancy? As a matter of national prestige, they couldn't do away with him.

This is also a good point. He achieved fame early on with his first symphony being composed when he was 19. I read a good quote from writer/composer Nicolas Nabokov the other day that said:

"To me, he seemed like a trapped man, whose only wish was to be left alone, to the peace of his own art and to the tragic destiny to which he had been forced to resign himself."

[eyeresist]

I read a good quote from writer/composer Nicolas Nabokov the other day that said:

"To me, he seemed like a trapped man, whose only wish was to be left alone, to the peace of his own art and to the tragic destiny to which he had been forced to resign himself."

That describes me too

[Mirror Image]

That describes me too

Somebody asked me the other day what is about Shostakovich's music that I relate to? I would say his struggle to conform to the rigid rules of the Soviet regime. He had to find a way to be himself just like we all have to find a way to be ourself in the narrow confines of the society we live in.

[eyeresist]

Somebody asked me the other day what is about Shostakovich's music that I relate to? I would say his struggle to conform to the rigid rules of the Soviet regime. He had to find a way to be himself just like we all have to find a way to be ourself in the narrow confines of the society we live in.

Hmm. Depends what you mean by "conform". Did he want to believe, did he want to be the New Soviet Man? Or did he want to be himself, and only put up a show of conformity in order to survive?

He grew up under Soviet rule, and with symphonies 2 and 3 did appear to be reconciling himself to the dominant ideology, after a fashion. But the criticism he encountered seemed to be not really based on ideology, but upon people cynically gaming the system, casting aspersions on rivals and objects of dislike. I've read (somewhere) that Shostakovich remained to some extent a believer in the ideals of Communism, but after the Terror he must have realised that the USSR was only a travesty of these ideals.

From this, I would say the conformity of his later years was only a shield, a survival tool. But then, it is also true that the man becomes the mask he wears....

In conclusion: Dmitri was not a happy bunny.

[Karl Henning]

Somebody asked me the other day what is about Shostakovich's music that I relate to?

In my case: the beauty and integrity of the music.

[eyeresist]

What do you mean by "integrity"?

[Mirror Image]

Hmm. Depends what you mean by "conform". Did he want to believe, did he want to be the New Soviet Man? Or did he want to be himself, and only put up a show of conformity in order to survive?

He grew up under Soviet rule, and with symphonies 2 and 3 did appear to be reconciling himself to the dominant ideology, after a fashion. But the criticism he encountered seemed to be not really based on ideology, but upon people cynically gaming the system, casting aspersions on rivals and objects of dislike. I've read (somewhere) that Shostakovich remained to some extent a believer in the ideals of Communism, but after the Terror he must have realised that the USSR was only a travesty of these ideals.

From this, I would say the conformity of his later years was only a shield, a survival tool. But then, it is also true that the man becomes the mask he wears....

In conclusion: Dmitri was not a happy bunny.

Interesting view, eyeresist. It's hard for me to say whether he conformed or not, because there are still so many unanswered questions regarding his life that haven't even been answered. Like, for example, what's the meaning of the 5th symphony? What's the idea of the 9th --- was it a celebration of Soviet victory from the Germans or was it a sarcastic musical statement depicting Stalin as an egomaniac? What's the meaning behind the Passacaglia in Violin Concerto No. 1? What does this heartfelt outpouring of emotion symbolize? So many questions...

[eyeresist]

I don't think the 9th had any sort of program. It's an exercise in contrasting moods.

[Mirror Image]

I don't think the 9th had any sort of program. It's an exercise in contrasting moods.

Evidently, the Soviet authorities thought differently since it was a work that got Shostakovich into a lot of hot water.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Symphony_No._9_(Shostakovich)

[eyeresist]

Evidently, the Soviet authorities thought differently since it was a work that got Shostakovich into a lot of hot water.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Symphony_No._9_(Shostakovich)

Who am I to contradict the Politburo?  0:)  The response of the New York World-Telegram is hilarious: "The Russian composer should not have expressed his feelings about the defeat of Nazism in such a childish manner". Yes, Mom!

Listening to the 9th now (Kondrashin). It reminds me of the string quartets, particularly the early ones, with its mix of folksy dance rhythms and pathos. I think it might do well in a quartet arrangement.

[Mirror Image]

Who am I to contradict the Politburo?  0:)  The response of the New York World-Telegram is hilarious: "The Russian composer should not have expressed his feelings about the defeat of Nazism in such a childish manner". Yes, Mom!

Listening to the 9th now (Kondrashin). It reminds me of the string quartets, particularly the early ones, with its mix of folksy dance rhythms and pathos. I think it might do well in a quartet arrangement.

I find it amusing that the Soviet authorities reacted so negatively towards it. The whole work is a joke and cartoonish, but this, of course, doesn't make it any less fun to listen to. I need to revisit it. I've neglected it for too long, although it's a work I've always enjoyed.

[jlaurson]

I don't think the 9th had any sort of program. It's an exercise in contrasting moods.

That would have been part of the problem.

http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2012/05/gergievs-munich-shostakovich-symphonies_11.html

...At a symposium earlier that day, Gergiev grumbled that to ignore the humor in DSCH was to miss the point of his music entirely. That's particularly true for the Ninth Symphony, coy and glittery and frivolously charming, with a brass section that sounds like the Keystone Kops at band-camp. Dainty ballet-girls and beer hall oompah-bands never existed in such harmonious proximity. Deliberately undercutting the mythical status that Beethoven set for a "Ninth Symphony" already made a (musical) statement in and of itself. Doing so in the summer of 1945, following the defeat of Nazi Germany and after announcements in the press had suggested a "Victory Symphony", added another, political, dimension. Imagine collective expectations of a high-holy paean to Stalin, vanquisher of evil and preserver of the people. And then you get the symphonic equivalent of "Ding Dong the Witch is Dead." In a place and at a time where being apolitical (never mind wrong-political) was a crime, that was strong stuff.

[mahler10th]

I find it amusing that the Soviet authorities reacted so negatively towards it. The whole work is a joke and cartoonish, but this, of course, doesn't make it any less fun to listen to. I need to revisit it. I've neglected it for too long, although it's a work I've always enjoyed.

Shosty, it seems, was quite happy to drop little dittys and daft wee tunes into his major symphonic works. 

[Karl Henning]

I find it amusing that the Soviet authorities reacted so negatively towards it.

Well, it was rather serious business, actually, and (not to seem to brow-beat you) I'm not sure amusement is quite an apt response. It would not be until Stalin had died, that Dmitri Dmitriyevich would write another symphony. In that interval, he eschewed that genre for a reason.

[Mirror Image]

Shosty, it seems, was quite happy to drop little dittys and daft wee tunes into his major symphonic works. 

By the way, welcome back, John!