Shostakovich: Symphonies vs. SQs

[Brian]

There's been two symphonies of his I've never quite warmed to-the Ninth and the Fourteenth. I don't know if I would categorize them as lesser Shostakovich, but they're my least favorite of the cycle.

Hmm, now I'm curious. What is it that you don't like about the Ninth? Or if it's simply never clicked, do you have any theories as to why?

[Brahmsian]

Hmm, now I'm curious. What is it that you don't like about the Ninth? Or if it's simply never clicked, do you have any theories as to why?

I know you aren't asking me, Brian, but thought I'd chime in. 

I think Shostakovich's 9th Symphony is a marvelous, marvelous symphony.   Perhaps, I think it unfairly suffers from that "slender Greek maiden between tow big Nordic giants" syndrome, similar to Beethoven's 4th? 

[kishnevi]

I like a greater percentage of the symphonies (4, 7,8, 10, 11, 14 especially) than I do of the string quartets,  but I think the quality of the quartets is uniformly higher than that of the symphonies.  There are some low points in the symphonies (2, 3, and 15, I'm looking at you),  but none in the string quartets.

(If you wonder why I picked on 15--it just doesn't gel for me.)


So my answer is "both".

[kyjo]

Hmm, now I'm curious. What is it that you don't like about the Ninth? Or if it's simply never clicked, do you have any theories as to why?

It's not that I don't like the Ninth, it just doesn't have as much of an impact as most of the other symphonies. I like Shostakovich's lighter side, but I prefer the PCs and the ballets to the Ninth. Perhaps the fact that it lies sandwiched between two monumental masterpieces, the Eighth and the Tenth, contributes to my opinion of it. I do like the 2nd movement quite a bit though. It's quite haunting actually.

[Karl Henning]

Oddly enough I rather like the 12th Symphony. The new Symphony No 4 (Petrenko) is terrific.

I like the Twelfth all right, though my honest opinion (right or wrong, it has the virtue of honesty) is that, if the Twelfth were the best of his fifteen, we should not really think at all much of him as a symphonist.

Yesterday Tapatalk ate a post I had composed, so here I am trying afresh 16 hours later . . . I actually think very well of the Second and Third.  They have a bravado which I love to hear, a certain character which is necessarily absent from any of the music written after the composer got burnt; and yet already an assurance (an assurance which carries their apparent wildness).  The only thing "wrong" with these symphonies, which is generally treated summarily as artistically fatal, is the embarrassing weakness of the texts (which reminds me of a schoolmate who wrote a review of the then-latest Bruce Springsteen album in which he concentrated exclusively on the texts — I'm sorry, lyrics — and he said nothing, nothing at all, about the music).  But face it, the equivalent artistic nicety does not get at all in our way of enjoying many an opera.

Now, perhaps my earlier opinion about the Twelfth would hold true about equally of the Second and Third, that if they were the best which Дмитри Дмитриевич had to offer, at the last we should think nothing of him in particular as a musical force.  But I find them better than many give them credit for (and, well, I like them a good deal better than the Op.112, sorry).

[Karl Henning]

Yes, I do too, and although many consider it to be his weakest symphony, I enjoy it a lot.

Well, as you probably infer from my recent post, I do consider it his weakest symphony, but at this point, that fact does not interfere with my enjoying it 

[Karl Henning]

I like one Shostakovich symphony and one Shostakovich string quartet, so it's a tie, I guess

We can guess the quartet, but which symphony? 

[Karl Henning]

Well, I ought to have gone on reading . . . .   0:)

The symphony I like is No. 14, which I suppose is no surprise, I'm not the only committed non-Shostakovichian to single it out for admiration. (I also like the beginning and ending of No. 15, but lose interest in the middle.)

In fact, I am surprised (and pleasantly).  My working hypothesis (though I knew it was speculative, and not anything certain) was the Op.47.

[Brahmsian]

Well, as you probably infer from my recent post, I do consider it his weakest symphony, but at this point, that fact does not interfere with my enjoying it 

Agree with you, Karl.  I for one enjoy the 2nd, 3rd and 12th symphonies.  They are not my 'least favourites' of Shostakovich's symphonic output, either. 

[Mirror Image]

Not really a fair poll IMHO because these are two different genres being pitted against each other. One has a huge a palette of colors to draw from. The other is limited. This said, I'm more of a symphony fan than an SQ fan, so the symphonies win hands down.

[DavidW]

I find that the further into 'newer' music I go into, I tend to prefer orchestral works.

From Baroque to the early Romantics, I tend to prefer chamber and solo instrumental works.

Same here.  While pre-20th century music had chamber and piano music as the most intimate musical expression, 20th and 21st century composers became much more bold, imaginative and surprising with their orchestral works blurring the boundaries between chamber, choral and orchestral.  Combining the more innovative approach to orchestral with the broad range of color that an orchestra is capable of and modern orchestral became an amazing genre.

[Todd]

String quartets, easily.  The symphonies are far too variable in quality, with some being outright clunkers (eg, the 12th).  That written, the 13th Symphony is possibly my favorite single DSCH work.

[TheGSMoeller]

That written, the 13th Symphony is possibly my favorite single DSCH work.

Nothing wrong with that. From end to end the 13th is certainly one of the most consistent of his works, it's such a hauntingly beautiful experience.

[Karl Henning]

+ 1

[Jaakko Keskinen]

String quartets!

[NorthNYMark]

For me it is definitely the string quartets, which I have discovered only somewhat recently, and with which I have become almost obsessed.  They combine a challenging modernism with a yearning melodicism in a way that I rarely hear elsewhere (including in the same composer's symphonies).  The second quartet (and its haunting second movement) is a particular favorite.  I am still trying to listen to the symphonies more closely, thinking that there must be more to them emotionally than initially meets the eye (or ear), given the inspired quality of the quartets, though I continue to find the "martial" blaring throughout most of them somewhat tedious. So far, the one section of the symphonies that feels as moving to me as any of the quartets is the very end of the Fourth Symphony, with its haunting/haunted outro.  I assume he would have made more music like that in subsequent symphonies, but was too terrified to provoke the conservative censors.

[EigenUser]

The 9th symphony is not only my favorite Shostakovich symphony, but it is one of my favorite symphonies ever. I can't stand the 7th and I don't like the 5th much either. The 1st is okay -- impressive for a first, for sure .Oddly, I don't think that the 2nd and 3rd are as bad as people make them out to be. I can appreciate them more because they are truly products of their time.

[North Star]

The 9th symphony is not only my favorite Shostakovich symphony, but it is one of my favorite symphonies ever. I can't stand the 7th and I don't like the 5th much either. The 1st is okay -- impressive for a first, for sure .Oddly, I don't think that the 2nd and 3rd are as bad as people make them out to be. I can appreciate them more because they are truly products of their time.

No mention of the 4th, 8th, 10th, 11th, 13th, 14th, 15th?

[EigenUser]

No mention of the 4th, 8th, 10th, 11th, 13th, 14th, 15th?

Oh, I've heard the 13th and didn't like it. Not surprised, though, since I don't really care for choral symphonies.

never heard the others

[Ken B]

Oh, I've heard the 13th and didn't like it. Not surprised, though, since I don't really care for choral symphonies.

never heard the others

Well, since my role on GMG seems to be to throw the stink bombs, Shosty's symphonies are often pretty poor. Imagine this was his complete symphonic oeuvre:

2,3,4,7,11,12,13

Would he be part of the repertoire? No. They are like Beethoven's First, they aren't programmed just on their own merits.

Of the rest, all of which are in varying degrees good and flawed, which are masterpieces? 14, probably 10. 
I would count some of the late song cycles as masterpieces, but they aren't part of this poll. 

So I vote quartets. But above those I voted the preludes and fugues and CC2.