Shostakovich 4: anyone else got a 'problem piece' by a beloved composer?

[doversoul1]

A slightly odd kind of problem. I just cannot listen to Bach’s St John Passion without thinking about St Matthew Passion and feeling that something is missing (not spiritually by any means).

[Ferretfancy]

Back to the Shostakovich 4, I think it's very important to hear a live performance of this extraordinary symphony to get it's full shattering impact. I say that even though I have ten recordings of it in my collection. Of those, I like Barshai and Previn, but the one that works best for me is Rhozdestvensky. That desolate ending works best with him, taken at a slower pace than some, and all the better for it. I feel that this and the 8th are Shostakovitch's greatest.

[HighlandDougie]

Typically great post from Jayne (no 22) and also from A Hinton

Very churlish of me not also to mention AH's thoughtful post. It's really difficult to express what it is about this particular work which makes it so compelling but AH (and JLW) have got much nearer than most (maybe that should be any).

Among the works of a composer whom I love dearly (Tchaikovsky), I find his 1st Piano Concerto hard to love (or, at least, the first movement - Liszt has a lot to answer for)

[Nick Armstrong]

ok ok that Vaughan Williams harmonica romance thingy.

[Alison]

Beethoven's Archduke Trio is a work I have never really taken to.

For Tchaikovsky it would have to be Francesca da Rimini.

[EdgeleyRob]

Its not just the libretto E R I don't think the music is up to RVW's usual standard either, nice ideas in places, but a lot of the 'filling' is very uninspired. Hugh the Drover has a weak libretto too but the music is memorably and at times very romantic and beautiful, in many ways RVW's homage to Puccini, a composer he greatly admired. Riders to the Sea is RVW's operatic masterpiece and I also adore Sir John in Love (I actually prefer it to Verdi's Falstaff).

Hard to disagree with any of that sc,some great music in all those works.

http://www.rvwsociety.com/soundsmps/operasounds.html

[Petrushka]

For Tchaikovsky it would have to be Francesca da Rimini.

Nooooooo! One of the most thrilling works in the entire orchestral repertoire, Alison! I'll never forget the first time I heard it - and live too. Sir Charles Groves and the RLPO in 1977. I'm not sure of availability but the 1961 Leningrad PO/Rozhdestvensky recording on DG takes no prisoners and is the most viscerally exciting performance you will ever hear.

[Flay]

I've just listened to Shosty 4 on Spotify and realised that I didn't know it at all! It's not bad either (understatement). Thanks for the thumbs-up, Caliban.

I've just never been in the mood to listen to it through. My loss.

[Nick Armstrong]

I've just listened to Shosty 4 on Spotify and realised that I didn't know it at all! It's not bad either (understatement). Thanks for the thumbs-up, Caliban.

[amateur51]

I've just listened to Shosty 4 on Spotify and realised that I didn't know it at all! It's not bad either (understatement). Thanks for the thumbs-up, Caliban.

I've just never been in the mood to listen to it through. My loss.

What performance did you listen to, Flay?

[Flay]

What performance did you listen to, Flay?

Ashkenazy and the RPO (1898), it was a pot-luck choice.

[Flay]

I mean 1989!! I'm so dazed by it....

[amateur51]

Ashkenazy and the RPO (1898), it was a pot-luck choice.

Cor!

What does the 1898 signify?

Cross-post - now I understand

[Nick Armstrong]

What does the 1898 signify?

Way past your habitual bedtime, ammy - big old snooze this arvo, to be eagle-eyed like that at knocking-on half eleven?

[Bryn]

It's clear that the more famous the work, the keener the disappointment so I'd have to say DSCH 10. Haven't got it yet .. all this lark about the "perfect allegro" ...

Again, if it might help, the composer made a piano duet version of that. He and his good friend Mieczysław Weinberg recorded it in 1954. It's available on YouTube. Here's the first movement:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zf6diycL4mI&feature=relmfu

There is also a recording of the piano duet version of the 9th on Toccata Classics, though I have not as yet heard it.