Shostakovich Symphony #11 - Petrenko
Today I bought Vasily Petrenko's interpretation of this magnificent symphony for Naxos. It's all about the massacre of approximately 250 peaceful protesters by the Czar's army in St Petersburg in 1905. What an emotive subject. I'm not surprised that DS was award the Lenin Prize for this painting in music. Would 1917 have happened without such an atrocity I wonder? Surely the most important test of DS's art for Soviet Russians, and what a triumph. #10 is truly great music. But #11 is electrifying and pervaded with a feeling of sheer terror.
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I agree entire;ywith your post, MR, the sheer scope of this emotive subject, is certainly brought to life in this musical portrayal of an event in the last years of the Tsarist rule of Russia. Just proves that the Tsars were just as tyrannical, i a way, than the Communists were, IMO.Don’t cry for me
I go where music was born
J S Bach 1685-1750 -
Since the Eleventh and Twelfth are related thematically -- the Tocsin bells in the finale of the 11th warning of the oncoming storm -- I've often wondered why they aren't played together more in concert. What a curtain raiser the 11th would be, and I feel like the 12th would benefit from basking in the post-intermission glow of the superior 11th. The 12th is considered by critics to be such an odd duck, probably because of the crazy bombast of the finale -- wouldn't that bombast be better earned if it came at the end of a full evening of revolutionary Shostakovich?
I don't want to be a conductor, but I desparately want to be able to program their concerts! :)Comment
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I am afraid that prokkyhosty you might have a small audience !Comment
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:) If Abramovich can buy Chelski, can't I at least hire the Philharmonia for a season or two? :)Comment
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With this talk of Revolutionary Shostakovich, has anyone heard his cantata, "The Song of the Forests". I have this on an Decca recording with Vladimire Ashkenazy conducting. Perhaps this music is not premier DS, but certainly worth a look.Don’t cry for me
I go where music was born
J S Bach 1685-1750Comment
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I dont know the Ashkenazy version of 'Song of the Forest', but I've got an old Melodiya LP version with Vladimir Ivanovsky (tenor) and Ivan Petrov (bass) with Boy's Choir of the Moscow State Choral School conducted by Y. Ulanov and Republican Academic Russian Choir and Moscow State Philharmonic Orchestra, both conducted by Alexander Yurlov. Phew, that took a bit of typing out! I havent played it for ages and cant honestly say I can remember a note. Most of my books on DS dont even mention it, but Ian MacDonald ('The New Shostakovich') describes it as "... the nearest thing to a musical vacuum Shostakovich had ever created." Khrennikov loved it and it won DS a Stalin Prize, which MacDonald says was a great humiliation for the composer, to be honoured for a work he himself despised.
The 11th symphony is a much more formidable piece. I've got three versions, conducted by Kondrashin, Mravinsky and Cluytens. The last two have perhaps stuck in my memory more than the first.Comment
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I was rather dissapointed with Petrenko's recording. I much prefare the free BBCMag with the BSO. Very exciting.Comment
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More "revolutionary Shostakovich"... I love the little-known overture simply called "October", dating from 1967. In fact, it was the first thing of his that I'd ever heard, thanks to some random radio concert that I managed to tape way back when. And what a great intro to Shostakovich it was. It's a fun piece, not unlike the Festive Overture, but much better, I think.
As to the Song of the Forest I remember hearing a pre-concert talk once where an academic noted the 9 year gap between the 9th and the 10th Symphonies (the longest such gap in his career) and suggested that the Song of the Forest was therefore akin to Mahler's Das Lied von der Erde, a song cycle in place of a symphony. I'm not sure whether the Shostakovich profits by that comparison...Comment
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I very much agree. I had heard little of Karabits's work before I received this magazine and CD, and it has made me quite interested in him. He seems to be another of the eastern whizzkids that are taking over our podia. It will be interesting to see how Petrenko and Karabits develop, and where their strengths turn out to be.Originally posted by Threni View PostComment
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... woops, tree-planting plan to protect Central Asia from drought. The fact that trees didnt grow there didnt deter Stalin, with enough encouragement from socialist realism and the secret police, they would. But they didnt.Comment
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Er, apologies, that last post was the tail end of a long post which my fumbling fingers managed to lose just before I finished it. Thought I'd posted it incomplete, but now see I didnt. I will try to recover, or recreate.Comment
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Further to recovery, I didnt. However, the contribution was about DSCH and 'The Song Of The Forest' op 81, which the sleeve note on my [official USSR govt. approved Melodiya LP] recording says [no I'm not making this up (I couldnt), it really does say this]:
"In 'The Song of the Forest' DSCH turned to the stirring theme of creative labour and the transformation of nature.
The composition is mainly concerned with the future, the happy future that will follow the hardships of the Great Patriotic War, the future built by many willing hands. The leading collective character here is that of the land of Socialism, whose goal is a happy future. "
No doubt the vagaries of Russian translation have allowed a few ironies to slip under the wall woops, radar. None the less and despite my perhaps equivocal utterances, so much at odds with the glorious spirit of the common man, I'm sure 'The Song of the Forest' is a heartfelt hymn to the horny-handed sons of toil.
I could go on, but I wont, for now ...
Oh Voltaire, where are you to comfort us with a comment?Comment
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Heard Symphony no. 12 in 1999. It's quite clever how it manages to hide the scherzo first time round. Whilst still in quiet mode from the slow mvt 2 , mvt 3 starts quietly and sinisterly and very subtle percussion. Then we have the loud bombast recap with banging drums that leads us into the finale.
Mvt 1 is Shostakovich's first full blown romantic sonata form allegro which works very well.
For some strange reason I heard no.12 before no.11. no.11 I heard for the first time live at the Proms in 2000. By the side of no.12 it seemed quite ordinary.
Until we got to the middle bit! The massacre. I can still visiulise them playing it now. faster and faster until the percussion erupts.
It would be good to hear these played on Performance on 3 rather than the usual no5!
3VSComment
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3rd Viennese, to illustrate your point on the scherzo of the 12th:
Dudamel and the Venezuelan youngsters (the Teresa Carreno group, younger than the Simon Bolivars) who clearly relish playing Shostakovich. Just watch that bass drum shake!!Comment
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