Dmitri's Dacha

[Mirror Image]

Thank you, John.    I do browse the forum at least weekly, but haven't been in the mood to post.  Have had something difficult occur in my personal life, so working through that each day, and things are getting better.

I'm sorry to hear this, Ray. Wishing you well through this period.

[vandermolen]

I'm sorry to hear this, Ray. Wishing you well through this period.

Me too.

[vandermolen]

My favourite version of Symphony 8 - in a class of its own IMHO. I'm delighted that Warner have reissued it with the striking original LP cover image, which is one of my favourites. Pity, for me, that the booklet notes are exclusively in Japanese:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Symphony-8-Shostakovich/dp/B01A61C69A/ref=sr_1_1?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1465147554&sr=1-1&keywords=shostakovich+Previn

[jlaurson]

Thank you, John.    I do browse the forum at least weekly, but haven't been in the mood to post.  Have had something difficult occur in my personal life, so working through that each day, and things are getting better.

Cheers & tenacity!

[vandermolen]

Cheers & tenacity!

I don't think that particular piece of music would cheer Schroeder up! Very nice though. 

[North Star]

I don't think that particular piece of music would cheer Schroeder up! Very nice though. 

It is the buying of records that cheers Schroeder up, so maybe the listening experience is more trivial.

[Karl Henning]

It is the buying of records that cheers Schroeder up, so maybe the listening experience is more trivial.

Though it be not light-hearted, exactly, I do find the scherzo cheering . . .

http://www.youtube.com/v/zJN2rbMEozI

[vandermolen]

It is the buying of records that cheers Schroeder up, so maybe the listening experience is more trivial.

That's absolutely true! Certainly in my case. So, even Pettersson's 'The Dead in the Marketplace' would have had the same effect. 

[jlaurson]

Cheers & tenacity!

I don't think that particular piece of music would cheer Schroeder up! Very nice though. 

Yes, the ironic choice of works, pertinent to this thread, was sufficient to make me chuckle to myself. But then, I'm easily amused. 

[vandermolen]

I don't think that particular piece of music would cheer Schroeder up! Very nice though. 



Yes, the ironic choice of works, pertinent to this thread, was sufficient to make me chuckle to myself. But then, I'm easily amused. 

It made me laugh too. 

[Scion7]

   ç1973

Oistrakh was satisfied with his performance.
Remastered in 2005.

[vandermolen]

   ç1973

Oistrakh was satisfied with his performance.
Remastered in 2005.

That's a great performance. Just listening to the Ormandy recording of Symphony 1. I think that 'Shostakovich becomes Shostakovich' in the coda of that work in the same way that 'Sibelius becomes Sibelius' (and moves away from the influence of Tchaikovsky) in Symphony 3 or perhaps the last movement of Symphony 2. I very much enjoy Shostakovich's 1st Symphony, especially in Ormandy's fine performance.

[Scion7]

This will cause M.I. to leap from his chair and head for the batpole!



[asin]B01E6IEJ4O[/asin]

[jlaurson]

   ç1973

Oistrakh was satisfied with his performance.

and Maxim does his best Peter Sellars impression. 

[vandermolen]

That fine train photo crops up here too:
[asin]B000025XTR[/asin]

[Scion7]

While of course "good," the Greenwich Trio still tops all for the second Piano Trio - the live event from the Slovakian broadcast (all movements out there on YT) has the most passion of any performance of this piece.  Shame they disbanded.

Recommended for the Viola sonata.

[Pat B]

and Maxim does his best Peter Sellars impression. 

Peter Sellars or Peter Sellers?

[Brian]

A random comment: listening to the Fifth Symphony a couple times this month, under Bernstein (live in Tokyo) and Kreizberg (PentaTone), I've come to the more general conclusion that I am pro-fast ending and anti-slow ending. I remember at a younger age being gobsmacked by how terrifyingly sad and oppressive the slow ending is, but the truth is, it's still brutal when played quickly. Hard to believe that anybody at the time was convinced this was a "happy ending" - even blazing-fast Lenny brings out the major/minor-key ambiguity and the eerie discord of all those repeated notes. It's unsettling as written, and my current thinking is that stretching the ending out as long as possible is overkill.

[amw]

According to the metronome marks the end of the fourth movement should be exactly double the speed of the beginning, so that the timpani D-A ostinato remains the same speed.

I think the performance that best illustrates Shostakovich's metronome marks is Wigglesworth/BBCNOW. Also a good one in general. Maybe one of my favourites I'm not sure. Shostakovich does not want a fast tempo for the movement; the basic tempo is quarter = 88 (although he composes in an accelerando to quarter = 126, iirc, for the second theme) and the coda is obviously half = 88. Most performers I've noticed play the movement a lot faster than he seems to have wanted.

[Mirror Image]

I prefer a faster ending a la Bernstein's Tokyo performance. I had to raise my eyebrow at the choice of Wigglesworth from amw. I own most of his Shostakovich recordings (on BIS) and think he lacked intensity in all of the performances I've heard. I mean we all have our favorites, but you'd pick Wigglesworth over conductors like Mravinsky, Kondrashin, Haitink, Maxim Shostakovich, Petrenko, Barshai, etc.? Also, sometimes what the composer wants doesn't always happen. I remember David Diamond being very unhappy with Bernstein's performance of his Symphony No. 4, but that was a great performance IMHO despite what the composer thought.