It was after all, perfectly possible to be in favour of the Revolution yet appalled by the practices of the party that engineered it. But ten years on from the Revolution, ‘October’ had come to mean much more than the specific events of 1917. The piece is in one unbroken movement made up of four sections, with the last containing a part for chorus. 2, Op. Or learn more… Or learn more… Recordings: Bernard Haitink: Royal … It’s turning out pretty gloomy.’ The second half of the piece is certainly much more tragic in vein. I was touched by that. Nervous tension and sarcastic wit, passion and intelligence, contemplation and action, nobility and banality – all expressed with an economy of means that is simultaneously subtle and direct. 2 in G Major, Op. Instead, the final lines are chanted rather than sung: This is the slogan and this is the name of living generations: After composing the first two movements, Shostakovich wrote to a friend that it would be more fitting to call the work a ‘symphony-grotesque’. 2 in C-sharp minor for Violin and Orchestra, Opus 129. ( Log Out / In many people’s minds it represented more an ideal of what the Revolution stood for, rather than the reality of regimented Bolshevik doctrine. Stalin had asked for light and boisterous finales. The Fifth Symphony, finished by Shostakovich in 1937, is probably the most frequently performed of his symphonies, and it’s easy to understand why. 2, Op. Such a work was entirely appropriate for the occasion for which it was being written. But perhaps it was not only that work’s orchestration, with its soloistic piano part, that fascinated the student composer. But if they seem crude or illogical, that reflects the brutality and ideologically confused spirit of the age. 14 no. 2 in B major, Op. It is a radically different work than his first symphony, which is a marvelously successful work that to me gives us far better glimpses into who the composer would later mature into than either of these works we’ll discuss. 2 in B, op. Written at the age of eighteen, Shostakovich’s First Symphony was the graduation piece that completed his studies at the Leningrad Conservatory. Even removing the choral finale, which sounds wholly uninspired, we’re still left with a piece that lacks much motivation. The sound is not unlike the beginning of The Firebird in its low string ominousness; it just lacks shape. 14 and subtitled To October, for the 10th anniversary of the October Revolution.It was first performed by the Leningrad Philharmonic Orchestra and the Academy Capella Choir under Nikolai Malko, on 5 November 1927. The memoirist Ilya Ehrenburg has written of ‘a generation without tears, callous, a stranger to tender passion and to art’. The composer’s trade-mark musical gestures are all immediately obvious. Shostakovich had given them their forced happy ending, a secret testament to the horrors of life under Stalin. Who knows, if he’d been allowed to carry on composing in the same vein, we might have ended up with something like ’50s/’60s Ligeti – but 30 years sooner! It received its premiere on November 5, 1927 with the Leningrad Philharmonic under Nikolai Malko. I agree with you utterly about the merits of no.3 (although I hope I’m not pre-empting what you yourself were going to say about it) – if ever there was a case of giving the authorities exactly what they wanted, in the form of a here-today-gone-tomorrow Socialist Realist musical slogan (albeit giving it voluntarily, which is savagely ironic given how they damn near broke him over the course of later life for daring to write anything other)! October, the Commune and Lenin. The finale reaches a clear climax, cymbal crash and all, but a snare drum made of pure tragedy doesn’t let the piece end. Shostakovich’s second symphony, however, (and third, as we shall see) was not only not a roaring success at its premiere, but has continued to be recognized as some of his weakest work in the form. Shostakovich was surprisingly unequivocal in what he thought of it, referring to the words as ‘quite disgusting… very bad poetry… abominable’. 47 (1937) If we think about it more like a Strauss tone poem than a Shostakovich symphony, maybe it’ll seem more convincing. The Soviet Union had discovered its first international star, the first to be trained solely under the new system rather than old imperialist Russia, and the authorities proclaimed him as an exaltation of the new at the expense of the old. Voting game from the old Amazon forum: Shostakovich symphonies: 1 - Symphony #10 in E minor, Op. Find album reviews, stream songs, credits and award information for Shostakovich: … It’s about 20-ish seconds, depending on ambient noise, before you hear the low mumbles of the ensemble in this first and longest movement. Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in: You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. (This was not performed until 1961, during the Kruschev era.) This choice may have been influenced at least partially by Vsevolod Meyerhold’s theory of biomechanics. 2 & 3 - Amazon.com Music Walter, Toscanini, and Klemperer all performed it. 14 and subtitled To October, for the 10th anniversary of the October Revolution.It was first performed by the Leningrad Philharmonic Orchestra and the Academy Capella Choir under Nikolai Malko, on 5 November 1927.After the premiere, Shostakovich made some revisions to the score, and this final version was first played in Moscow … Shostakovich had started to experience some of that ‘struggle’ first-hand. 2, the Second, Third, Sixth, and Tenth string quartets, the Violin Concerto No. BBC Proms 2007: Prom 48Royal Albert HallAugust 19, 2007Simón Bolivar Youth Orchestra of VenezuelaGustavo Dudamel, conductorShostakovich Symphony 10mvt II. 4 (1935–36) were withdrawn. Explain that Shostakovich put secret messages and codes into his music as a clever way of avoiding Stalins rules. It is challenging, undoubtedly harsh, perhaps even puzzling, but I am among those who has become spellbound by it. Symphony No. Dmitri Shostakovich composed his Symphony No. Initially described by the composer as a symphonic poem, the piece was eventually entitled ‘Symphonic Dedication – To October’. Shostakovich wrote that ‘whereas in October, the main content is struggle, May expresses the festive spirit of peaceful development… This does not mean that the music in May is all glorifying and celebratory. This is followed by the most forced of perorations maybe ever written in music history. Even today, people wonder just what Shostakovich was trying to say. Dmitri Shostakovich wrote his Symphony No. The classicism is most apparent in the first movement, which follows 18th-century sonata form right down to repeating the exposition (the only Shostakovich Symphony that does). 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