Topic: Dmitri's Dacha

[karlhenning]

Carrying on from here.

[karlhenning]

Other threads in The Old Place:

Celebrating Shostakovich!

Shostakovich

Shostakovich, what about this set?

Shostakovich and Prokofiev

Anybody watched "Testimony"?

And, what the hey:

Boris Tishchenko!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[PaulR]

I love the 5th with all my heart.  (Not as much as #10, mind you), but I just finished listening to it again, and I came to realize again that the last moments of the 1st movements are nearly the most spooky and frightening parts of the whole symphony.  And I also love the 3rd movement, but it's frightening in a different sense I think. 

[karlhenning]

Buona Mattina, Maestro Karl! Do you ever feel even in the least a bit gloomy, listening to such sometimes-infinitely-dark Shostakovich pieces?

Although, when I am in the mood for lighter-toned music, Shostakovich will not do . . . in general, I think of the difference, for example, between (say) Giotto and Rembrandt:





The tone-scale of Rembrandt tends always to be darker than, well, a number of other artists/styles/epochs, but the message is still one of Light.

With Shostakovich, on the other hand, it would be much overstepping bounds to consider the ‘message’ of his music a matter of Light.  Still, in the quartets he was more at musical liberty than in the more public works (and I speak as one who loves the great majority of the symphonies, for instance);  these, at least, are fifteen pieces in which the composer is thinking pretty much only of his Muse, and the four players.

[karlhenning]

I love the 5th with all my heart.  (Not as much as #10, mind you)

This is one reason (of many) that I admire Shostakovich so much. The casual reaction to a composer after Beethoven who has written 15 symphonies is, perhaps, to suppose that the writing of a symphony becomes somehow 'mechanical'.  But Shostakovich (notwithstanding the 'family resemblance' of materials which sometimes connects different pieces — such as "Macpherson Before His Execution" from the Six Romances on Verses of English Poets, Opus 62 and "Humour" from the Thirteenth Symphony 'Babi Yar') never wrote the same piece twice, and the difference in profile between even consecutive symphonies (the Fourth and Fifth being, understandably, perhaps the most dramatic examples) is striking, and telling.

[karlhenning]

I know this must come as a terrible shock to a lot of people (cough), but I really like the light touch of Ancerl in this symphony. Plus it comes with an unconventional--but IMO very effective--interpretation of the 5th symphony.

How unconventional, Edward?

[not edward]

How unconventional, Edward?

Well, I find that Ancerl's reading makes no attempt to foreground the drama in the work. (Very different from, say, a Kondrashin or Mravinsky.)

To me it works extremely well throughout...just letting the music speak for itself, but I've spoken to and read quite a few people who absolutely hated the recording for the selfsame reason that I like it so much.

[karlhenning]

Well, I find that Ancerl's reading makes no attempt to foreground the drama in the work. (Very different from, say, a Kondrashin or Mravinsky.)

To me it works extremely well throughout...just letting the music speak for itself, but I've spoken to and read quite a few people who absolutely hated the recording for the selfsame reason that I like it so much.

Very interesting, thanks.

In a similar vein, I have really enjoyed the Sergey Khachatryan recording of the Violin Concertos.

[PaulR]

Listening to the 10th, 5th, and 8th today,  (With the 10th's Moderato beginning), Shostakovich wrote brilliant slow movements, such as the largo in the 5th, and 8th, the 2 adagios in the 13th, and the adagio in the 11th and 7th.  his quicker movements are great to, but the slower one's are especially beautiful

[Don Giovanni]

I love Shotakovich's String Quartets. My favourites are: 8, 10, 14, 15. The 15th is unbearably yet hauntingly beautiful - I love it.

[quintett op.57]

I don't know which one I prefer, but the CD I'm listening now (8,7,3) is perfect

[PaulR]

I wish the 2nd violin concerto got more coverage.  I mean, I love the first one, but the 2nd one is often overlooked, and it's one of his best pieces, I think. 

And I think I also prefer the 2nd concerto to the first.

[S709]

Yes indeed, the 2nd VC is a great work, and its conclusion is one of the most violent/powerful/'modernist' things in DSCH.

But then again in this piece there is no really emotional sweeping lyricism like in the Passacaglia of the 1st VC. But perhaps it's just more subtle. I can't at the moment recall much of the slow movement of VC2...

[PaulR]

Yes indeed, the 2nd VC is a great work, and its conclusion is one of the most violent/powerful/'modernist' things in DSCH.

But then again in this piece there is no really emotional sweeping lyricism like in the Passacaglia of the 1st VC. But perhaps it's just more subtle. I can't at the moment recall much of the slow movement of VC2...

The Passacaglia in the First concerto is perhaps my favorite movement of his entire output (Competing with the first movement of the 10th symphony), but as a whole I enjoy the 2nd concerto more.

*please note:  I have the right to change my mind at any time*

[karlhenning]

I'll join in the chorus of wondering why the Second Violin Concerto gets so little love (without turning our musical backs upon the First).

[Danny]

For me, Shosty was the more accessible of the two (ie, between him and Prokofiev).  Mitya's music had a depth, warmth, and charm that I didn't find, at first, in Sergei.  Hearing Prokofiev, in my experience, was like first listening to Bach, Debussy and Schoenberg:  it took many attempts, the right work and environment to see the genius.

[karlhenning]

Very interesting, Danny!  I haven't thought about this in a while, but I agree that in general there is something a little more 'classicist' in Prokofiev's work, in general.

[Danny]

Very interesting, Danny!  I haven't thought about this in a while, but I agree that in general there is something a little more 'classicist' in Prokofiev's work, in general.

Thank you, Dr. Karl.

Loved your Giotto/Rembrandt analogy, btw. 

[PaulR]

I'll join in the chorus of wondering why the Second Violin Concerto gets so little love (without turning our musical backs upon the First).

Could it be that it's so much darker then the first, like the 2nd Cello concerto is darker than the first? 

Then again, is C# minor an easy key for the violin?  That also could be why.  I don't know, I'm not a violinist.  I just know it's an often too neglected work, that should really be equal of the first.  They are both wonderful works.

[Maciek]

The Passacaglia in the First concerto is perhaps my favorite movement of his entire output

Same feelings here. I can hardly think of another piece of music that would stir my feelings to such an extent. And every single time too!