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Underground > Radio & Music >

Happy Birthday Shostakovich

  
 
klockwerk
23:59 / 20.09.06
(Sorry, this is probably only my second or third post on this community. I like to lurk. I just had to come out for this)

Okay, personally I've had enough of all this Mozart praise: 250 years, blah blah blah, classical composer, blah blah blah, lets play the overture to The Magic Flute another billion times on the radio!

It's time to focus our worship on a more recent - and IMOH - more interesting figure in art music: the late Dmitri Shostakovich. Heck, even the word "interesting" can't sum up the coolness of this guy.

Amazing music, Soviet scandals, Stalin, Soviet realism and nationalism, communism, Russia, dissapearing friends, hidden rebellious messages in music, presigious awards, Cold War... you name it, this guy had seen it all. I've recently been listening to (over and over again) his 5th symphony, 9th symphony, and his 8th string quartet. Each are absolutely as musically breathtaking as the stories behind them are. A quick summary for the DSCH newbies:

Symphony No. 5 - In 1936, just after writing his contraversial opera Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk, which caused him considerable trouble with the government "authorities", Shostakovich was pressured to redeem his reputation which led him to compose what is considered his greatest masterpiece (at least of orchestral music). The piece exemplified the heroic nature of Soviet Russia, Stalin, the people. But musicologists have argued whether or not the music truely contains these metaphors, instead claiming the piece has subtle sounds of sarcasm or "false rejoicing" which could reflect how Shostakovich truely felt about the politics and society around him. Either way, this piece was at the time considered a perfect representation of the awesomeness of the Soviet Union at its height - both by fellow Soviets and the rest of the Western world.

The 9th symphony was commissioned by Stalin himself to be a piece celebrating the victory over the Germans in WW2. Though it started out that way, somewhere inbetween composing his other works, Shostakovich completely changed the direction the piece was going. Instead of another symphony making use of heroic sounds praise for the Red Army, the piece turned into a complete farce. The piece was bright and happy; moods not to well suited for music to be commemorating the hundreds of thousands of lives lost in the war. Although the piece was well recieved at first, it didn't take long for Shosty to find himself in trouble once again.

The 8th String Quartet is probably the most performed and most praised of his 15 string quartets (he also wrote 15 symphonies altogether). The piece is subtitled "to the victims of fascism and war" leading one to believe it was written like the 9th symphony, to honour those lost in WW2 and the surrounding times. But it is not known where the subtitle came from - as it is likely not Shostakovich's own. One idea is that upon Soviet musical authorities realizing that the work was a "musical autobiography" of Shostakovich, they stuck the subtitle on there to keep from getting him (and themselves) in any trouble. This particular quartet is very complex - containing quotations of works Shostakovich had written in the past, such as his opera and some of his symphony and his cello concerto. One of the most prominent "quotations" is the use of Shostakovich's musical signature - DSCH. (D, E-flat, C, B). The final movement is a fugato on this theme. Overall, the piece is both beautiful and haunting. I'd recommend anyone to listen to this at least once to get a sense of the composers' style, and comprehend how much a society (such as Soviet-Russia) can affect a person and their music.

So, I was hoping some other people here might have some fun, or interesting things to say on the subject (or correct my errors. I'm no expert on him by far, though I wish I was).

Happy Birthday Dmitri Shostakovich
 
 
Saturn's nod
10:40 / 21.09.06
Great stuff. I know what you mean.

I want to mention the Leningrad, at the risk of being judged sentimental:

Hitler's army first invaded Russia on 22 June 1941. By September 1941 the Siege of Leningrad had begun, with the city's population of 3 million encircled and cut off from the rest of Russia. According to official figures approximately 623,000 people died of starvation alone during the 18-month siege, although the unofficial estimate is closer to 1 million - a third of the population. Yet despite the horrendous conditions and constant attacks, and the evacuation of most of the orchestras and theatre companies, theatres still ran shows, musicians still played, and composers still composed.

Shostakovich wrote the symphony during the seige, and it was premiered in the city after his evacuation.

...perhaps the most remarkable wartime performance was the Leningrad premiere on 9 August [1942].

Still under siege, and with most of the orchestral players evacuated or fighting on the front line, the one remaining orchestra in Leningrad (the Radio Orchestra) numbered approximately forty to fifty. Special rations were awarded to members of the orchestra to sustain them through the rehearsals and the concert, and the extra players needed to perform Shostakovich's symphony were brought back from the front line. By the end of July the orchestra was in rehearsal, conducted by Karl Eliasberg (a fellow student of Shostakovich at the Petrograd Conservatoire). Immediately preceding the performance the commander of the Leningrad front, General Govorov, had ordered an attack on all enemy gun positions in order that the performance would not be interrupted. The Philharmonic Hall was packed for the concert and the performance was broadcast on loudspeakers throughout Leningrad. In addition, and as another show of defiance, there were loudspeakers relaying the concert to the German troops stationed outside the city. (source of above-quoted text)


It makes me cry that he wrote amidst starvation and war, and reminds me of other musicians in the worst conditions: the orchestras in the Nazi death camps. I love Shostakovich for persisting in composition despite being distrusted by pretty much everyone either for being too little or too much a communist. I honour him as an artist who hated totalitarian rule and expressed his political ambivalence through his composition.
 
 
Saturn's nod
10:53 / 21.09.06
Oh, and:

"When they laid Mrs Matus to rest at Bolsheochtunsky cemetery last May, Russia lost one of the last survivors of the most remarkable concert ever given. The performance, in which she played the oboe, was by the Leningrad Radio Orchestra, which, on 9 August 1942, performed Shostakovich's Seventh Symphony at the height of the furious siege - a mighty work dedicated to 'my native city'. It followed the snows of a devastating winter which thawed to reveal streets strewn with dismembered corpses, and left a million dead from starvation. And it marked the pinnacle of the blockaded city's defiance, when death stalked every corner and all seemed lost. Those who played like to think it might even have turned the tide. By a twist of fate, 9 August was the date the Nazis had printed on invitations to a reception at the Astoria Hotel, opposite St Isaac's Basilica in the heart of Leningrad's imperial centre, to celebrate the capture of the city. 'They never had their party,' said Mrs Matus, with a grimace. 'Instead, we played our symphony, and Leningrad was saved.'" from the Observer newspaper

Amazing story. Horrible story. Powerful story.
 
 
StarWhisper
09:58 / 02.10.06

Wow. I read Stalingrad a little while ago. It was horrifying.
There is something very special about the music of Dmitri Shostakovich. If you suffer from clinical depression, listening to the sad yet beautiful works, for example in symphony number 5, makes the muscle tension caused by depression relax.
Similarly, most sad yet beautiful classical music will have this effect. Shostakovich bieng a favourite of the scientist who discovered this phenomena.
If you are interested in procuring a harrowing, beautiful work I recommend Messiaens Quartet for the End of Time.
Haven't listened to it properly because I am saving it.
It was written in a Nazi prisoner of war camp and performed first in front of the S.S. It is traditionally played without the strings that were missing from the original instruments.
 
  
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