What are you listening 2 now?

[Madiel]

Shostakovich or any other representative of official Soviet propaganda

Um, WHAT?

[Madiel]

Sibelius: Five Characteristic Impressions, op.103

[Todd]

More good, old-fashioned baroque music. 

[pjme]

A late-late - romantic (1959) Belgian pianoconcerto . Rachmaninov lovers may enjoy it....

[Roasted Swan]

Tchaikovsky: Francesca da Rimini (Markevitch, New Philharmonia Orchestra)

Powerful stuff. The stormy ending is done as I like it, without hurry.

Markevitch is excellent in Tchaikovsky but give me a mad ride into the abyss every time at the end of Francesca!  Anything else is a sight-seeing trip to the 7th circle( !!)

[AnotherSpin]

Um, WHAT?

??

Shostakovich was a member of the top party nomenklatura, heading ideological control over Soviet music and comrades composers in the rank of secretary of the Union of Composers for several decades. He lived in a luxurious flat in the centre while the vast majority of his fellow citizens lived in barracks or dugouts, had delicacies on the table in a country where one had to queue for hours for a piece of cheese or a stick of sausage. All rantings about his hidden opposition to terrorist state are nothing more than fantasies. The system would not have allowed anyone to stay at the top for even a few days except for the faithful soldiers of the Communist party who were loyal to the bone...

[aukhawk]

Wait, I need to stock up on popcorn

[Madiel]

??

Shostakovich was a member of the top party nomenklatura, heading ideological control over Soviet music and comrades composers in the rank of secretary of the Union of Composers for several decades. He lived in a luxurious flat in the centre while the vast majority of his fellow citizens lived in barracks or dugouts, had delicacies on the table in a country where one had to queue for hours for a piece of cheese or a stick of sausage. All rantings about his hidden opposition to terrorist state are nothing more than fantasies. The system would not have allowed anyone to stay at the top for even a few days except for the faithful soldiers of the Communist party who were loyal to the bone...

Your knowledge of the system is clearly extensive for a person writing in an unknown location over 50 years later and immediately dispels everything nuanced I've ever read from other sources.

The two denunciations of Shostakovich are clearly pure fantasy now.

And my recording of the Anti-Formalist Rayok that Shostakovich supposedly wrote has magically disappeared in a puff of smoke. Which is a shame because it was a fascinating piece of music.

[Traverso]

Libre Vermell de Montserrat

[Linz]

Respighi Gli Uccelli, Suite for Strings and Suite in sol maggiore, Orchestra Sinfonica di Roma, Francesco La Vecchia

[Lisztianwagner]

Johann Strauss II
G'schichten Aus Dem Wiener Wald
Wiener Blut

Herbert von Karajan & Berliner Philharmoniker

[AnotherSpin]

Your knowledge of the system is clearly extensive for a person writing in an unknown location over 50 years later and immediately dispels everything nuanced I've ever read from other sources.

The two denunciations of Shostakovich are clearly pure fantasy now.

And my recording of the Anti-Formalist Rayok that Shostakovich supposedly wrote has magically disappeared in a puff of smoke. Which is a shame because it was a fascinating piece of music.

Of course, I cannot know all the details of Shostakovich's activities and life, nor his attitude to the system of which he was a part. But I was born, grew up and worked in the USSR, and I remember quite well what was going on in the culture of the country. In particular, the dominant place that Shostakovich's works occupied in state television and radio, as well as in the state LPs stores. Soviet musical culture was all about propaganda, and Shostakovich was one of its pillars. Yes, and even the most prominent people in the system backstabbed each other and wrote denunciations against each other. That's how it worked.

By the way, some remarkable post-Soviet composers were never part of the system. For example, Arvo Pärt, Giya Kancheli, Valentin Silvestrov were not members of the Composers' Union, which automatically deprived them of access to the trough in the USSR. It was not possible to hear them on state broadcasting and they had no LPs published in millions of copies, nor were they performed in concert halls.

[Madiel]

An obvious point is that Shostakovich became famous, including in the West, when he was very young and when the environment was very different. Before at least some of the composers you're mentioning were even born.

Anyway, all of this sheds no light on your original silly transformation of a comment about musical style into a political statement. Having said that a composer couldn't possibly have heard and copied Shostakovich (which was not the claim in the first place), you're now declaring that Shostakovich's music was everywhere. MAKE UP YOUR MIND.

[Symphonic Addict]

Markevitch is excellent in Tchaikovsky but give me a mad ride into the abyss every time at the end of Francesca!  Anything else is a sight-seeing trip to the 7th circle( !!)

I, for one, prefer not-hurried endings that are well held so that the thrill lasts more and that goes for works like Nielsen's Symphonies 3-5, Bruckner's 8th, etc. When conductors take the last minutes or seconds too fast in many works, the excitement is spoilt to me.

[Linz]

Rachmaninov Symphony No. 2 in E Minor, Op. 27, Ural Philharmonic Orchestra, Dmitry Liss

[Symphonic Addict]

Cowen: Symphony No. 5 in F major

Sometimes one has the privilege of coming across composers or works that reward with ideas that catch the ear or leave you thinking for good, but on other occasions the situation is completely opposite (and somehow ineludible) as in this case. Frankly, this is one of the most predictable, boring, formulaic, down-watered, forgettable, bland symphonies I have ever heard, and I don't blame the performance which sounded serviceable and committed enough. A genuine snooze fest. Even conservative symphonies like the ones by Parry or Stanford have much more to say. The remark that some composers deserve oblivion is true here.

[vandermolen]

Rachmaninov Symphony No. 2 in E Minor, Op. 27, Ural Philharmonic Orchestra, Dmitry Liss

They made an excellent recording of Miaskovsky's 6th Symphony - one of the best I think.

[vandermolen]

Malcolm Arnold: Symphony No.1
These are fine performances:

[Linz]

Bruckner Symphony No. # in D Minor, 1873 Original Version Ed. Leopold Nowak, Eliahu Inbal, Radio-sinfonie-Orchester Frankfurt
This recording of the orginal version is one of my favorites and I like it more than Tintners recording of it

[Lisztianwagner]

Bohuslav Martinů
Piano Concerto No.5

Emil Leichner (piano)
Jiří Bělohlávek & Czech Philharmonic Orchestra