Shostakovich: which one is your favourite amongst his works?

[BBMmk2]

Why are these two-piano arrangements of Shosta's music not generally available on cd?

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Why are these two-piano arrangements of Shosta's music not generally available on cd?

The Fourth Symphony recording that Bryn mentions is still available from CHANDOS, Bbm:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Shostakovich-Symphony-No-Arranged-Pianos/dp/B0007SK9LA/ref=sr_1_1?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1380726616&sr=1-1&keywords=shostakovich%2C+arranged+for+2+pianos

... and there's one of the Fifteenth, too:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Symphony-No-15-Arranged-Entremont/dp/B000LMPIQI/ref=sr_1_2?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1380726682&sr=1-2&keywords=shostakovich%2C+arranged+for+2+pianos

If you want to have a go yourself, then the arrangements (or, at least, some of them) are available in the Shostakovich New Collected Works available from Boosey & Hawkes. They're not cheap - Amazon has a copy of the four-handed Second Symphony at £49.90, whilst on the B&H site the four-handed First Symphony is £72.99. (The Fifteenth costs £171! I repeat, £171.)

[Stanfordian]

Why are these two-piano arrangements of Shosta's music not generally available on cd?

Hiya maestro, I guess that the market is extremely limited to make most piano arrangement projects financially viable. The majority of people that buy the disc will do so out of specific interest or for study purposes rather than as a general purchase. At a presentation of British Music that I was giving at a Recorded Music Society last year I recall playing the Naxos recording of the two-piano arrangement of Holst's The Planets and someone shouted out, why wasn't I playing the orchestral version?' I suppose they had a very good point, why wasn’t I? I guess I was trying to be different. There is no way I could sit and listen to a lengthy two-piano arrangement of say the Shostakovich Symphony No. 4 it would drive me either bonkers or send me to sleep.

[Roehre]

Which is a good argument for more Lachermann on R3

[HARRIET HAVARD]

So much to like. No5. No10 and No15. And then there are the 24 preludes Op34.

[HARRIET HAVARD]

Totally agree with you. I owe my appreciation of "serious" music entirely to Radio3. What a marvellous teaching aid this has been over the years. Presenters who were, first and foremost steeped in musical knowledge, who informed without being patronising.

But how different it all is now. The rot seemed to set in about ten years ago. But who could ever have forseen the depths to which our beloved friend would be dragged. Alas, I feel the rot has now gone too far now to be stopped, let alone reversed. I have expressed my thoughts on the matter to individual programmes, and to the heads of the network itself: as no doubt have many other have. But you get the feeling that while they are listening, no one at the network appears to have the intelligence to understand what they have done to such a precious resourse.

Even presenters who obviously have a serious understanding of their subject, seem to have been sucked into the black hole. I never thought, for instance, that I would ever hear Rob Cowan sucking up to the boring minor celebs or composers going on and on about their favourite subject- themselves- in the "Desert Island Discs" section of
Essential classics. Given the stations current obsession with film music, one film that comes to mind is The Invasion of the Bdy Snatchers. Can't help but think this is what has happened at Radio3. For Alians read Philistines.

[johnb]

Do any of the the people on this forum actually listen to Radio 3?? Or other classical music stations?? Just asking.

Michela,

Radio 3 used to be the main radio station I listened to. Like many others, my musical "education" was mainly from listening to R3. However, over the last decade I have been listening to it less and less and now I only tune in for the odd programme.

There is so much that we (R3 listeners) have lost.

The slot that CD Masters had is now occupied by "Essential" Classics. CD Masters was an excellent programme which played both interesting recordings (which were sometimes not well known) and a wide range of repertoire. It was knowledgeably introduced by Rob Cowan and Jonathan Swain. The contrast with Essential Classics couldn't be more stark. There is now no R3 programme that covers the extremely valuable legacy of recorded music. (CD Review has a different brief.)

Breakfast is really very bad. In fact I avoid R3 between 6:30 and 12:00.

The Discovering Music programmes used to be approachable yet they also covered the pieces in depth and were often given by a range of experts (e.g. there Gerard McBurney once did Stravinsky's Rite of Spring over two programmes). Now we have Stephen Johnson squeezed into 20 minute intervals every so often.

The Lunch Time Concerts used to be actual recitals. Now their contents are usually patched together from various concerts.

etc, etc.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

... another "good argument" is that THERE ISN'T NEARLY ENOUGH OF IT ON ANYWAY!!!

[Stanfordian]

Totally agree with you. I owe my appreciation of "serious" music entirely to Radio3. What a marvellous teaching aid this has been over the years. Presenters who were, first and foremost steeped in musical knowledge, who informed without being patronising.

But how different it all is now. The rot seemed to set in about ten years ago. But who could ever have forseen the depths to which our beloved friend would be dragged. Alas, I feel the rot has now gone too far now to be stopped, let alone reversed. I have expressed my thoughts on the matter to individual programmes, and to the heads of the network itself: as no doubt have many other have. But you get the feeling that while they are listening, no one at the network appears to have the intelligence to understand what they have done to such a precious resourse.

Even presenters who obviously have a serious understanding of their subject, seem to have been sucked into the black hole. I never thought, for instance, that I would ever hear Rob Cowan sucking up to the boring minor celebs or composers going on and on about their favourite subject- themselves- in the "Desert Island Discs" section of
Essential classics. Given the stations current obsession with film music, one film that comes to mind is The Invasion of the Bdy Snatchers. Can't help but think this is what has happened at Radio3. For Alians read Philistines.

Hiya Harriet Havard,

You talk about boring minor celebs etc on Radio 3. You are so right Radio 3 currently seems obsessed with these celebrities, the majority of which I have never heard of, or if I have I don’t wish to know the favourite music of say the conductor prize winner Sue Perkins. Then it’s all the tweeting, the phone-ins and the competitions. This is all too typical of the BBC in general who seem gripped by producing cheap budget programmes such as Bargain Hunt and various cooking competitions. One of the BBC’s best programmes Antiques Roadshow is altering too, it’s becoming a vehicle for Fiona Bruce to appear and interfere in the programme at any given moment, oh and that competition to ‘spot the fake’ or ‘guess the value’. I can just imagine a BBC Top Nobs committee deciding ‘let’s involve the viewers more’.

I must share my greatest toe-curling TV moment of the last year or so. It concerns that professional self-proclaimed Wagner expert Stephen Fry who whilst filming the programme ‘Stephen Fry - Wagner and Me’ at Bayreuth (shown on BBC 4 now on DVD) attempted a conversation with Eva Wagner-Pasquier (Richard Wagner’s great-granddaughter) who virtually ignore him and give him a ‘who do you think you are’ stare that made him visibly quiver.

[Bryn]

The Shostakovich/Wienberg recording of the 10th can be found on YouTube:

[Roehre]

... another "good argument" is that THERE ISN'T NEARLY ENOUGH OF IT ON ANYWAY!!!

Makes two of us

[Sydney Grew]

My favourite among the works attributed to this person is the First Symphony, which was actually written by his teacher (most of it). I am sorry to say that all the rest I find truly hateful productions. (My reasons: he was incapable of writing a good tune, he had no sense of harmony, and he was not a serious person.)

[Ferretfancy]

My favourite among the works attributed to this person is the First Symphony, which was actually written by his teacher (most of it). I am sorry to say that all the rest I find truly hateful productions. (My reasons: he was incapable of writing a good tune, he had no sense of harmony, and he was not a serious person.)

A message which makes me sure that there really must be multiple universes.

[ahinton]

My favourite among the works attributed to this person is the First Symphony, which was actually written by his teacher (most of it). I am sorry to say that all the rest I find truly hateful productions. (My reasons: he was incapable of writing a good tune, he had no sense of harmony, and he was not a serious person.)

His first symphony was written by no one but himself; from what source did you derive the false impression that it was largely ghost-written? He worked on it from the age of 17 to the age of 19. I am as sorry (and inddeed sorry for you) as I am astonished at the extent of your negative views of his other 144 opus numbered works, not to mention many more without such numbers - and even more so that you believe him to have had "no sense of harmony" and not to be "serious"; do you really believe (and, if so, on what grounds), that the composer of the two violin concertos, the fourth, sixth, eighth, tenth, thirteenth and fifteenth symphonies, the two piano trios, the piano quintet and whichever quartet you care to mention evidenced in these works (chosen by me as entirely random examples) no sense of melody, harmony or seriousness of purpose? You may dislike them all (although it is less than obvious why you would do so if your "favourite" among his works is the first symphony) - that's your prerogative - but to dismiss them as vehemently as you do and in the ways that you do does you no credit whatsoever.

[ahinton]

A message which makes me sure that there really must be multiple universes.

Point taken, except that I would fondly hope that the one in which SG appears to reside is not in fact a "universe" at all...