Favorite Moments in a Shostakovich Symphony

[Opus106]

Is any oboe really normal?

Well, I preferred to qualify it that way (to mean plain vanilla) just to prevent someone else from going... "actually, if you fit it with a cold-fusion-powered denormaliser, then it can."

[Brian]

Well, I preferred to qualify it that way just to prevent someone else from going... "actually, if you fit it with cold-fusion-powered denormaliser, then it can."

Or if you turn it into a cor anglais

[Scarpia]

The opening of the 10th symphony is perhaps my favorite thing in Shostakovitch, when the reeds emerge from that gloomy fugato for low strings, like the Loch Ness Monster rising from the gloomy water.

[Opus106]

Or if you turn it into a cor anglais

[Scarpia]

Or if you turn it into a cor anglais

or Oboe d'amore, or bassoon.

[karlhenning]

Thread duty:

As someone else pointed out, they're too many numerous to tally.  But . . . the flutter-tongue flute variation in the passacaglia fourth movement of the Eighth Symphony.

The four-oboe 'wonky unison' in the first movement of the Fourth Symphony. (Definitely not oboe normal.)

[vandermolen]

Descent into the darkness at end of Symphony No 4.

[karlhenning]

In the fifth first movements ending, the transition from hope to fear is absolutely stunning.

Descent into the darkness at end of Symphony No 4.

Really have to protest this sort of thing: speaking of one's impression of the music, as though it were a property of the music.  It's the musicological equivalent of painting a mustache on La gioconda: the artwork means what my perception of it says it means.

I love the final passage of the Fourth Symphony; I think it cheapens the passage immeasurably, to boil it down to a single specific impression.  Even from the perspective of you two chaps, it saddens me — because you've found a box to put the music in, a box which is far too small for the actual music.

[karlhenning]

Frankly, I don't hear a "descent to darkness" there at all.  I feel space, quiet (of course, since it's a diminuendo after the monumental brass passage), and lightness (i.e., the absence of gravity).  It's a miraculous passage . . . and its twin, at the end of the Eighth Symphony, is marvelous, too . . . though a twin of quite different character.

[Scarpia]

Really have to protest this sort of thing: speaking of one's impression of the music, as though it were a property of the music.  It's the musicological equivalent of painting a mustache on La gioconda: the artwork means what my perception of it says it means.

Aw, come on.  I see no implication that these impressions are a property of the music rather than personal reactions to the music.

[karlhenning]

Aw, come on.  I see no implication that these impressions are a property of the music rather than personal reactions to the music.

Okay. My favorite part of the Eleventh Symphony is the corkscrew into herbivorousness.

We all know where that is in the piece, I take it. Can't be mistaken for anything else in Shostakovich's music.

[Scarpia]

Okay. My favorite part of the Eleventh Symphony is the corkscrew into herbivorousness.

We all know where that is in the piece, I take it. Can't be mistaken for anything else in Shostakovich's music.

Never really took to the 11th, I guess because the corkscrew eluded me.   

[Mirror Image]

Allegro movement of Symphony No. 10 --- 'nuff said! 

[Tapio Dmitriyevich]

As someone else pointed out, they're too many numerous to tally.  But . . . the flutter-tongue flute variation in the passacaglia fourth movement of the Eighth Symphony.

Great one! I had that in mind, but didn't remember where it was in the eigth.

Descent into the darkness at end of Symphony No 4.

Most obviously I hear something like "getting lost in the fog" here - frightening.

What I really like about Shostakovich is when there is some beautyful and peaceful/positive playing in the foreground and at the same time unrest and uncertainty in the background, as in the beginning of Symphony No. 1 - Lento-Largo. Had a great effect on me in the concert hall. Something like that is also there in the fifth, peaceful woodwid + restless violins, but don't remember where. I guess this IS Shostakovich.

[kishnevi]

1) what I call the whiplash moment in the Fourth, when the strings, having raced almost out of control, are suddenly stopped dead in their tracks by the percussion

2) the second and third movements of the Eighth

3) the second movement of the Eleventh

And, as it happens, these three are my favorite DSCH symphonies, although not merely because of the above "big moments". 

[Luke]

There are many favourite passages, of course (the 4th and the 13th are particularly full of them for me personally) but as for single split-second moments as per the thread title - well, I can easily reduce it to one -

the entry of the second flute in the slow movement of 5. Although that's a movement chocka with both great moments (usually involving the solo wind or the harp), and great passages (such as the climactic cello sweep up to high A). But to me, that low flute note, so simple and unpretentious, seems to contain universes and open up huge mysterious vistas. Hey, maybe it's just me 

[karlhenning]

Mmm, nice.

[greg]

Anyone mention the big buildup in the 2nd?
(though unfortunately that's about all it has going for it)

[Tapio Dmitriyevich]

Anyone mention the big buildup in the 2nd?

"Has anyone ever listened to the 2nd?"
(a minor correction of your question)  

BTW, what's our "main" Shostakovich thread? It's unclear to me after a forum search.
EDIT: "Dmitri's Datcha" - I should have searched in the right forum.

[karlhenning]

"Has anyone ever listened to the 2nd?"
(a minor correction of your question) 

Hah!

Okay, I'll say it: I like the Second!  And I'm glad, I tell you! : )