Shostakovich's 4th Symphony

[vandermolen]

My favourite

[Lethevich]

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http://rapidshare.com/files/116238347/Shostakovich-_Symphony_No.4_In_C_Minor_-_1._Allegretto__poco_moderato_-_Presto_-_Tempo_1.mp3

http://rapidshare.com/files/116238348/Shostakovich-_Symphony_No.4_In_C_Minor_-_2._Moderato__con_moto.mp3

http://rapidshare.com/files/116238349/Shostakovich-_Symphony_No.4_In_C_Minor_-_3._Largo_-_Allegro.mp3

I don't know what you do when you link files like that, but it seems to a) circumvent the countdown b) ignore the DL limit (I had just finished another RS file before I clicked this). I like

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

I don't know what you do when you link files like that, but it seems to a) circumvent the countdown b) ignore the DL limit (I had just finished another RS file before I clicked this). I like

I have a Rapidshare account - I turned these files into 'Direct Downloads', so that anyone who has the link can download the file immediately.

[Lethevich]

I have a Rapidshare account - I turned these files into 'Direct Downloads', so that anyone who has the link can download the file immediately.

Very kind, thank you

[MN Dave]

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http://rapidshare.com/files/116238347/Shostakovich-_Symphony_No.4_In_C_Minor_-_1._Allegretto__poco_moderato_-_Presto_-_Tempo_1.mp3

http://rapidshare.com/files/116238348/Shostakovich-_Symphony_No.4_In_C_Minor_-_2._Moderato__con_moto.mp3

http://rapidshare.com/files/116238349/Shostakovich-_Symphony_No.4_In_C_Minor_-_3._Largo_-_Allegro.mp3

You da man.

[greg]

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http://rapidshare.com/files/116238347/Shostakovich-_Symphony_No.4_In_C_Minor_-_1._Allegretto__poco_moderato_-_Presto_-_Tempo_1.mp3

http://rapidshare.com/files/116238348/Shostakovich-_Symphony_No.4_In_C_Minor_-_2._Moderato__con_moto.mp3

http://rapidshare.com/files/116238349/Shostakovich-_Symphony_No.4_In_C_Minor_-_3._Largo_-_Allegro.mp3

oooooohhhhh sweet thanks
this'll be a third version for me, then- my CD is Rozhdestvensky's, I've seen a Gergiev performance on youtube, and now Kondrashin.
before long i'll be able to play it back in my head straight through!    (well, you know, somewhat)

[greg]

...and of course the end is like a vision of the end of Das Lied von der Erde, in a totally different dimension.

Here's commentary on this page that I've never read about before: (i don't have a CD booklet)
http://youtube.com/watch?v=PF9pt6Zs_F0

I have read in his memoires (Testimony by Volkov) and in another book by Kryzstof Myer that this part (and also the flute solo part in the 1st part of the 6th symphony) refer to the sleepness nights he had in the period after Stalin had seen his Lady Macbeth Opera. He was (obviously) afraid to be shot or to be sent away to something like the Gulag. You can also read that he was only very lucky one day that this didn't happen.

You're welcome. Lady Macbeth was written in 1930-32 and the 4th symphony in 1935-1936.

By the way, that very lucky one day he had refers to the following anecdote you might know about. If you do not, here it is:

One day after Stalin's attack in Pravda Shostakovich was called by the NKVD (secret service) on a saturday. Officer Zakrevski tried to convince Shostakovich that he belonged to a group of terrorists who were preparing an attack on Stalin.

They asked him the names of the other terrorists. Shostakovich obviously did not know what he was talking about. Zakrevski told him to come back on monday and warned Shostakovich that he must give their names otherwise he would be arrested (and eventually be shot). When Shostakovich returned to the NKVD on monday, after an endless sunday. There, they did not know why Shostakovich came to them. You know why? Because Zakrevski himself was shot on sunday.

The end of this symphony seems to be about sleepless nights, and fear of death, at least that's what Krzystof Meyer says..... (though how do we know he's not making this up)? Anyone read his book on DSCH?

I do see a link between here and Das Lied von der Erde and the Mahler 9...... it's like both composers had in mind that before long it's possible that they might die.

Also, I was listening to the 5th symphony today and realized that there's similar passages at the end of the 1st and 3rd movements. Maybe it's a similar theme going on, even though it's a "Soviet Artists Reply to Just Criticism", maybe that was part of him actually saying what he wanted to?

[not edward]

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http://rapidshare.com/files/116238347/Shostakovich-_Symphony_No.4_In_C_Minor_-_1._Allegretto__poco_moderato_-_Presto_-_Tempo_1.mp3

http://rapidshare.com/files/116238348/Shostakovich-_Symphony_No.4_In_C_Minor_-_2._Moderato__con_moto.mp3

http://rapidshare.com/files/116238349/Shostakovich-_Symphony_No.4_In_C_Minor_-_3._Largo_-_Allegro.mp3

Many thanks for this. I still haven't got around to buying a CD version of the Kondrashin studio set (I used to have the LPs before I moved to Canada) so this is an instructive contrast with my currently favoured Rozhdestvensky.

Regarding similarities between this work and others, the most obvious to me has been the linking passage before the final catastrophic climax, which is very obviously indebted to the passage connecting the scherzo and finale of Beethoven's 5th (and presumably the reference is very much intentional).

[M forever]

Many thanks for this. I still haven't got around to buying a CD version of the Kondrashin studio set (I used to have the LPs before I moved to Canada)

Why? Are LPs illegal in Canada so they confiscated them at the border? 

There is also a live recording with Kondrashin and the Staatskapelle Dresden from 1963 - actually the German premiere. Dresden at that time of course was in East Germany and that concert was less than 2 years after the wall had been built. It is a very intense and massive reading, unfortunately in mono, but in rather good mono at least, so you soon forget that.

My own associations that are stirred by this piece and the long end in particular are less about the knowledge of death or other personal feelings of fear and impending catastrophy (oops, catastrophe). For me, Shostkovich, while as personal as Mahler, also has a dimension which reaches beyond his own personality. I think in many of his works, he makes more general comments about the time and place he lived in than that he just gives us his personal reflection. I somehow see him as the chronicler of the immense oppression and suffering of the people under the Soviet regime, the sarcastic and grotesque march-like music with the long bassoon and trombone solos a mocking of the dictatorship, the catastrophic climax of the last movement as a prophesy of the very bad things that would happen to the people, the long coda the desolation and emptiness afterwards. I find that emptiness very eerie, especially the way the celesta notes float above the wasteland left by the destruction before. I haven't made up my mind yet if the very last note of the celesta indicates hope, or if it "means" that the music just disappears into nothingness...

[greg]

For me, Shostkovich, while as personal as Mahler, also has a dimension which reaches beyond his own personality. I think in many of his works, he makes more general comments about the time and place he lived in than that he just gives us his personal reflection.

He was moved by world events, after all, so that makes sense.

Mahler, on the other hand, was more of a daydreamer, which i can identify with.... hung out in the forest composing music about the animals, mankind's suffering, transcendence, and death.

And it's pretty fascinating to analyze these attitudes on a technical level, too (especially harmonically)- such as Shosty's frequent octatonic scale use, use of the major scale but with a flatted 2nd in the bass (which sounds like some "suspicious" note over a calmed major tonality).

And of course Mahler's frequent additions of an extra note over a regular major or minor chord (or major with a 1st inversion, which sounds extra painfully nice), plus the more "transcendent" chord progressions and modulations, such as iv-I and augmented 4th modulations, mix of major and minor (writing a "sighing" minor third in a major context.

Any more thoughts on technical analysis of these composers' aesthetics and how they differ and are alike, M? (or anyone else) (like harmony, counterpoint, rhythm, etc.)

[ezodisy]

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http://rapidshare.com/files/116238347/Shostakovich-_Symphony_No.4_In_C_Minor_-_1._Allegretto__poco_moderato_-_Presto_-_Tempo_1.mp3

http://rapidshare.com/files/116238348/Shostakovich-_Symphony_No.4_In_C_Minor_-_2._Moderato__con_moto.mp3

http://rapidshare.com/files/116238349/Shostakovich-_Symphony_No.4_In_C_Minor_-_3._Largo_-_Allegro.mp3

I have all of the available Kondrashin recordings of this symphony and in my opinion this is his best one in spite of some individual mistakes from the players. His interpretation in some places is notably different (more mature, and probably more intense) from the earlier Moscow recording and the other live account with Dresden. With Rozhdestvensky these 2 conductors have no competition in this work.

[greg]

Just finished the Kondrashin recording. Honestly...... this is WAY better than Rozhdestvensky (which itself is better than Gergiev).
Everything is more lively and clear at the same time, even the fast fugue section is slightly faster, yet just as clear (how is that possible?!). You can hear the brass through the strings, and it isn't overpowering (with few minor exceptions).
The tempos are perfect and the whole symphony sounds more solid..... did Shostakovich ever get to hear Kondrashin conduct this one?

[not edward]

Just finished the Kondrashin recording. Honestly...... this is WAY better than Rozhdestvensky (which itself is better than Gergiev).
Everything is more lively and clear at the same time, even the fast fugue section is slightly faster, yet just as clear (how is that possible?!). You can hear the brass through the strings, and it isn't overpowering (with few minor exceptions).
The tempos are perfect and the whole symphony sounds more solid..... did Shostakovich ever get to hear Kondrashin conduct this one?

I'm going to go for a contrary viewpoint here: though Kondrashin is obviously a must in this work, I still prefer Rozhdestvensky. Yes, Kondrashin has more energy but Rozhdestvensky's slow tempi and some of his rhythmic articulation contribute to an immensely ominous atmosphere, that makes the whole work feel like an inevitable progress to the ultimate catastrophe at the end. Kondrashin is electrifying, but Rozhdestvensky scares the sh*t out of me.

[MN Dave]

...but Rozhdestvensky scares the sh*t out of me.

Is that the BBC Legends recording?

[not edward]

Is that the BBC Legends recording?

I've not heard that one: the one I have is part of this set:



I don't have the complete set, though: I had it on a BMG/Melodiya twofer that's now out of print.

[Renfield]

Is that the BBC Legends recording?

That's the one I was referring to, at least. Interesting to see there's a complete cycle out there; I wonder how I missed it.

[rubio]

That's the one I was referring to, at least. Interesting to see there's a complete cycle out there; I wonder how I missed it.

The Rozhdestvensky set still exist in the Venezia incarnation from HMV Japan.

http://www.hmv.co.jp/product/detail/1440100

[Renfield]

The Rozhdestvensky set still exist in the Venezia incarnation from HMV Japan.

http://www.hmv.co.jp/product/detail/1440100

Interesting. Thank you.

[Novi]

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http://rapidshare.com/files/116238347/Shostakovich-_Symphony_No.4_In_C_Minor_-_1._Allegretto__poco_moderato_-_Presto_-_Tempo_1.mp3

http://rapidshare.com/files/116238348/Shostakovich-_Symphony_No.4_In_C_Minor_-_2._Moderato__con_moto.mp3

http://rapidshare.com/files/116238349/Shostakovich-_Symphony_No.4_In_C_Minor_-_3._Largo_-_Allegro.mp3

Ah, many thanks, Jezetha. One of the big fat zeros in the poll above belongs to me so I appreciate you taking the time to make this available .

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

Ah, many thanks, Jezetha. One of the big fat zeros in the poll above belongs to me so I appreciate you taking the time to make this available .

I envy you! Hope you'll enjoy it.