Shostakovich: which one is your favourite amongst his works?

[Beef Oven!]

Although I'm not in the UK with my music collection, I have an SD card with loads of DSCH so I popped it into my DAP and listened to Petreno's Royal Liverpool recording. Surprisingly I was familiar with nearly every note. We discussed this symphony on here a while back and the subsequent listens were more enjoyable than this afternoon. It goes like that sometimes Nothing to do with the recording, it's excellent. Not over the top like some. VP brings out so much musical detail that gets lost sometimes in the potential bombast. He treats it more as music than drake, if you get my point.

[BBMmk2]

Wigglesworth, Kondrashin.

Concur with the Wigglesworth. This won the BaL, quite a few weeks ago.

[ahinton]

To answer the question directly, I think that it would have to be the Fourth Symphony.

[cloughie]

To answer the question directly, I think that it would have to be the Fourth Symphony.

No real favourites, but unfavourites are 13,14,2 & 3. Maybe more time and listening needed but probably won’t get!

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

To answer the question directly, I think that it would have to be the Fourth Symphony.

- or, possibly, the Fifteenth. Depends which one I'm listening to or thinking about at the time. I like many of Shosty's works, but these two not merely give me everything I want from works of Art, but also several things that I didn't previously know I wanted - if that makes any kind of sense.

[Beef Oven!]

It's too early in the day to answer impossible questions! Mind you, no time of day would be appropriate for trying to answer a question like this! No - can't answer that one; sorry!

[ahinton]

No real favourites, but unfavourites are 13,14,2 & 3. Maybe more time and listening needed but probably won’t get!

2 & 3 don't do much for me either - and nor did 14 until I had the sense to accept it as the song cycle that it is rather than the symphony that it's called. 13, on the other hand, I think is wonderful. 12 seems to me to be the worst of the symphonies, composed almost as though even the autopilot was malfunctioning at times...

[ahinton]

I don't recall writing that! When did I do so?

[Beef Oven!]

I don't recall writing that! When did I do so?

You wrote it before you had read post #11

And then with due reverence, you chastened yourself with post #51

[ahinton]

You wrote it before you had read post #11

Ah, thanks for the clarification (I didn't want to wade through the entire thread to find it!) - so, almost five years ago, then, which might account for my having forgotten doing so. As #273 evidences, my feelings about the Fourth Symphony remain unchanged over the years!

[Beef Oven!]

Ah, thanks for the clarification (I didn't want to wade through the entire thread to find it!) - so, almost five years ago, then, which might account for my having forgotten doing so. As #273 evidences, my feelings about the Fourth Symphony remain unchanged over the years!

[BBMmk2]

2 & 3 don't do much for me either - and nor did 14 until I had the sense to accept it as the song cycle that it is rather than the symphony that it's called. 13, on the other hand, I think is wonderful. 12 seems to me to be the worst of the symphonies, composed almost as though even the autopilot was malfunctioning at times...

ahinton, inclined to agree with you about 2 & 3. 13 & 14 I rather like. 14 is quite different, from anything else. Anyone know what the Kiril Kondrashin is like?

[Stanfordian]

At the moment my favourites are No's 1, 8, 9 and 11 being especially fond of the firstling.

I think that I've played No's 4 and 14 too much in recent times.

[gurnemanz]

At the moment my favourites are No's 1, 8, 9 and 11 being especially fond of the firstling.

I think that I've played No's 4 and 14 too much in recent times.

9 is a relatively recent favourite with me. I think I just overlooked it. I've never heard it live. My enthusiasm is at least partly thanks to watching Leonard Bernstein's enjoyable and enlightening exposition on YouTube.

[Stanfordian]

9 is a relatively recent favourite with me. I think I just overlooked it. I've never heard it live. My enthusiasm is at least partly thanks to watching Leonard Bernstein's enjoyable and enlightening exposition on YouTube.