January is also Shostakovich Symphony Month

[Karl Henning]

The Rules:

   
• There are no rules, really.
• Participation is purely voluntary, only we do encourage you to visit each of the 15 at least once this month.
• If there is demand / ongoing participation, the gala may extend into February.

[Brahmsian]

+1, although I'm continuing with the string quartets for January.  I'll make time for some symphonic listening too! 

[Karl Henning]

Oh, I'm still in with the quartets, too!

For this thread, I'm starting with an unlikely apéritif . . . the abandoned trunk of the 'original Ninth'.  After the Leningrad, and the stormy, war-shattered Eighth, Shostakovich had spoken of finishing out a 'war trilogy' with a triumphal Ninth, with choral finale; at one point, he spoke of the start he had gotten on this piece with some of his students.  In the event, he set aside the grand ideas for the new symphony, and wrote the five-movement, Haydnesque, 'light' Ninth which then invited official displeasure of its own.

[asin]B0020LSWXE[/asin]

The real find here is a portion of the original first movement to the Symphony No. 9. David Fanning located it--321 bars in an untitled manuscript--pressed within the autograph score of The Gamblers at Moscow's Shostakovich Archive. This, along with ink and handwriting similarities, made for a tentative identification. The clincher was Fanning's discovery of three duplicate pages in a folder of unarranged Shostakovich autographs at the Glinka Museum of Musical Culture, bearing a January 15, 1945, date. That matched to the month the point at which the composer began work on his Ninth. What we get is the full manuscript, lasting shy of seven minutes, with eight bars Fitz-Gerald provides for a final cadence.

The surviving autograph has an earnest, energetic, on-balance-positive character which (especially after the desolation of the Eighth) recalls the Leningrad.

[Mirror Image]

Count me in! Now, this is my cup of tea..errr....vodka here!

The selection of recordings I'm going to listen to for this particular event:

Symphony No. 1 - Bernstein, CSO, DG
Symphony No. 2 - Haitink, LPO, Decca
Symphony No. 3 - Haitink, LPO, Decca
Symphony No. 4 - Previn, CSO, EMI
Symphony No. 5 - Bernstein, NY Phil., Sony (1979 Live in Japan)
Symphony No. 6 - Litton, Dallas SO, Delos
Symphony No. 7 - Masur, NY Phil., Teldec
Symphony No. 8 - Haitink, RCO, Decca
Symphony No. 9 - Levi, ASO, Telarc
Symphony No. 10 - Jarvi, RSNO, Chandos
Symphony No. 11 - Caetani, Orchestra Sinfonia di Milano Giueseppe Verdi, Arts Music
Symphony No. 12 - Rostropovich, National SO, Warner Classics
Symphony No. 13 - Masur, NY Phil., Teldec
Symphony No. 14 - Rattle, BPO, EMI
Symphony No. 15 - Kondrashin, Dresden Staatskapelle, Profil Hanssler

[North Star]

Count me in! Now, this is my cup of tea..errr....vodka here!

The selection of recordings I'm going to listen to for this particular event:

Symphony No. 14 - Rattle, BPO, EMI

I would have thought that tea is Russian enough, too.
What do you think of that one, John? How do Quasthoff and Mattila do? Or perhaps you haven't heard it yet.

[Karl Henning]

I would have thought that tea is Russian enough, too.

Да.

[Mirror Image]

I would have thought that tea is Russian enough, too.
What do you think of that one, John? How do Quasthoff and Mattila do? Or perhaps you haven't heard it yet.

It's been quite some time since I've heard it, but I remember enjoying it. I don't have any qualms with Quasthoff or Mattila. As for the tea, I'm sorry but when listening to Shostakovich only the hard stuff will do.

[kishnevi]

[Goes to find his copy of the Barshai set, deep inside the innards of the Brilliant 100 CD Symphonies box]

I'm in....

[Brahmsian]

[Goes to find his copy of the Barshai set, deep inside the innards of the Brilliant 100 CD Symphonies box]

I'm in....

Enjoy, Jeffrey! 

[Brahmsian]

Random selection (other than the 5th, here goes for Shostakovich symphonies):

1 - # 5
2 - # 6
3 - # 12
4 - # 13
5 - # 2
6 - # 11
7 - # 1
8 - # 14
9 - # 3
10 - # 9
11 - # 8
12 - # 15
13 - # 7
14 - # 4
15 - # 10

[Karl Henning]

Just a randomized listening order, Ray?

[Brahmsian]

Just a randomized listening order, Ray?

Yes!     In conjuction with the string quartets (I have quartet # 14, # 5 and # 1 left).

Except, I chose to start with the 5th symphony    Just so happens the last on the list is my favourite = Symphony No. 10 

[TheGSMoeller]

Great compositions. I'll join the party.
I've seen live performances of the 5th (twice) 10th and 15th, some very memorable concerts for sure. Some highlights for me are the Largo from No.5, as desolate yet appealing as music can get, the middle movement Allegro Non Troppo from No.8, second movement Allegro from No.10, the frighteningly intense closing coda from No.11, and finally every single note from No.15, a piece I could listen to once a day and never tire of.

[Mirror Image]

Count me in! Now, this is my cup of tea..errr....vodka here!

The selection of recordings I'm going to listen to for this particular event:

Symphony No. 1 - Bernstein, CSO, DG
Symphony No. 2 - Haitink, LPO, Decca
Symphony No. 3 - Haitink, LPO, Decca
Symphony No. 4 - Previn, CSO, EMI
Symphony No. 5 - Bernstein, NY Phil., Sony (1979 Live in Japan)
Symphony No. 6 - Litton, Dallas SO, Delos
Symphony No. 7 - Masur, NY Phil., Teldec
Symphony No. 8 - Haitink, RCO, Decca
Symphony No. 9 - Levi, ASO, Telarc
Symphony No. 10 - Jarvi, RSNO, Chandos
Symphony No. 11 - Caetani, Orchestra Sinfonia di Milano Giueseppe Verdi, Arts Music
Symphony No. 12 - Rostropovich, National SO, Warner Classics
Symphony No. 13 - Masur, NY Phil., Teldec
Symphony No. 14 - Rattle, BPO, EMI
Symphony No. 15 - Kondrashin, Dresden Staatskapelle, Profil Hanssler

Okay, now you're going to have to count me out for this month. I've entered into a Debussy phase and I'm not sure when I'll return. I also have some Irish classical music to explore once I receive those recordings. Going to be quite busy, but I might manage to squeeze in some Shostakovich here and there. I've heard all of these symphonies many, many times, so I can thankfully say that I know what I'm missing, but just too many distractions and other musical interests happening right now.

[StLukesguildOhio]

I don't think I could listen to that much Shostakovitch in one month. I might need to curtail my fix of Bach, Mozart, Wagner, and Strauss and that, of course, is an impossibility. 

[Mirror Image]

I don't think I could listen to that much Shostakovitch in one month. I might need to curtain my fix of Bach, Mozart, Wagner, and Strauss and that, of course, is an impossibility. 

Same here but only substitute the composers RVW, Elgar, Debussy, Ravel, Stravinsky, Villa-Lobos, Bartok, and Prokofiev.

[Karl Henning]

Great compositions. I'll join the party.
I've seen live performances of the 5th (twice) 10th and 15th, some very memorable concerts for sure. Some highlights for me are the Largo from No.5, as desolate yet appealing as music can get, the middle movement Allegro Non Troppo from No.8, second movement Allegro from No.10, the frighteningly intense closing coda from No.11, and finally every single note from No.15, a piece I could listen to once a day and never tire of.

So many which I have not heard live . . . but let's be a glass-half-full chap: so many thrilling live performances:

The Clevelanders playing the Tenth under the direction of Simon Rattle in McGaw Chapel at Wooster, back in the early '80s. Entirely a life-changing musical event.

Gergiev leading the Mariinka orchestra in a shattering performance of the Leningrad in Mechanics Hall in Worcester, Mass. No one attending that event would be in any doubt, either of the greatness of the symphony, nor of the fact that Gergiev is capable of delivering the goods. (At times.)

The late Paavo Berglund leading the BSO in the Eighth, Daniele Gatti at Symphony Hall for the Fifth, Mark Elder conducting the Fourth.

All in all, great music-making to have been able to witness!

[TheGSMoeller]

So many which I have not heard live . . . but let's be a glass-half-full chap: so many thrilling live performances:

The Clevelanders playing the Tenth under the direction of Simon Rattle in McGaw Chapel at Wooster, back in the early '80s. Entirely a life-changing musical event.

Gergiev leading the Mariinka orchestra in a shattering performance of the Leningrad in Mechanics Hall in Worcester, Mass. No one attending that event would be in any doubt, either of the greatness of the symphony, nor of the fact that Gergiev is capable of delivering the goods. (At times.)

The late Paavo Berglund leading the BSO in the Eighth, Daniele Gatti at Symphony Hall for the Fifth, Mark Elder conducting the Fourth.

All in all, great music-making to have been able to witness!

The tenth in concert is where it's at. Seeing the musicians (mainly woodwinds) having to physically manage through some of the insane sections of the second and fourth movements is exhilarating.

You've got quite an impressive résumé of concerts, Mr. Henning.

[Sergeant Rock]

Great compositions. I'll join the party.
I've seen live performances of the 5th (twice) 10th and 15th, some very memorable concerts for sure.

So many which I have not heard live . . . but let's be a glass-half-full chap: so many thrilling live performances:

The Clevelanders playing the Tenth under the direction of Simon Rattle in McGaw Chapel at Wooster, back in the early '80s. Entirely a life-changing musical event.

Gergiev leading the Mariinka orchestra in a shattering performance of the Leningrad in Mechanics Hall in Worcester, Mass. No one attending that event would be in any doubt, either of the greatness of the symphony, nor of the fact that Gergiev is capable of delivering the goods. (At times.)

The late Paavo Berglund leading the BSO in the Eighth, Daniele Gatti at Symphony Hall for the Fifth, Mark Elder conducting the Fourth.

All in all, great music-making to have been able to witness!

I've only heard Shostakovich live on one occasion. Almost a half century of concert going and only one concert featured a Shosty symphony! In Cleveland, Szell didn't conduct anything by Shostakovich. Maazel programmed the 5th (and recorded it) but I don't think he conducted much else. The composer seldom shows up in the programs of my local orchestra here in Germany either.

I did see the 10th performed in Cleveland in 1967. The Brahms VC occupied the first half of the concert. David Oistrakh played the concerto under Szell. Then Oistrakh conducted the 10th while Szell watched 

Sarge

[kishnevi]

Listened to the Barshai recording of Symphonies 1-3 earlier this evening.  I'm not sure about his First, but the Second and Third come out much better than any other recording I remember.  Left me with the feeling that non Soviet composers lost a great opportunity by not exploring the road he started to go on with these symphonies (before Stalin intervened, of course).

Live performances I've seen live:  none

This shouldn't be surprising, since my symphony going habits, reinforced by the paucity of opportunities here in South Florida,  are non existent.  I don't think I've hear any of the major symphonists in a live performance, not even Ludwig or Johannes.

The Clevelanders will be doing the 10th in Miami this season, but I won't be able to attend that one.