Prom 4: Shostakovich’s ‘Leningrad’ Symphony - 16.07.18

[Richard Barrett]

Any perceived bombast or vulgarity is part of and contextualised by an all-encompassing, epic vision of “A Country at War”: a happy peaceful country, the invasion, the agony of the victims and their love for their land, a final battle and triumph.

Those being some (but not all) of the reasons - having "grasped" them only too well - one might find to explain one's lack of engagement with or interest in this music...

[jayne lee wilson]

Maybe it is one of those pieces you get or you don't. If you get it, oh boy, you really get it: it becomes an adored, intoxicating musical icon, always in your head, even if you haven't heard it for a while. Obviously, I wouldn't go to the trouble of defending it on artistic grounds (whose merits, including a high degree of melodic inspiration, and that far-reaching, through composed symphonic integration, I believe are genuine, and deep) if I didn't love it to distraction. (Dear EdgelyRob, if he's looking in, will know exactly what I mean; it affects him just as profoundly).
It can be so overwhelming that, like Josef Suk's Asrael, you'll sometimes not dare to approach it; it gave me the two most intense concert hall experiences I ever had, in the days when my ears could still (just) take those kinds of levels. I just played the adagio in the bedroom, to check some thematic transformations, and found myself utterly devastated again, full of love for that flute/cello theme (perhaps hearing it just after seeing the John Curry film was a little too much; I could easily imagine him choreographing that idea..)...

It was the last DSCH symphony I got to know, having been discouraged from listening to it at all by critical dismissal, when I first traversed the cycle in the 1970s on Melodiya LPs. At first I was dazed and confused by the epic breadth and depth, the sheer thematic proliferation; listening to a Radio 3 broadcast, I could scarcely tell the movements apart.
But what made me really connect with it was - that's right, Bryn: Edward Downes' BBC Phil broadcast in the early 1990s, which I taped off-air. As the coda approached the tension was unbearable; my heart was racing, and I was short of breath; I was really fearful for my survival; I guess I didn't play that tape too often!

It found a place, deep and dark, in my head and in my heart; but it was some time before I could face the work again.

[greenilex]

I will be at the preProm talk as well as the performance. Thanks to everyone for insights.

[Richard Barrett]

It found a place, deep and dark, in my head and in my heart

I will give it another try after your passionate defence of it, Jayne. The socialist-realist War Symphony aspect of it in itself doesn't appeal at all, but thematic continuities and transformations might!

[Petrushka]

I'm very much with JLW on this and the 7th affects me every bit as profoundly as ER. I don't, however, hear triumph at the end but a monstrous anger, a boiling over of rage. What DSCH had to say about the 7th in Testimony, (true or not) that the Psalms of David, especially those dealing with revenge, should be read before the Symphony resonates very strongly with me. Try it and see.

Incidentally, I attended a 1983 Prom performance given by the BBC PO (then BBC Northern) conducted by Sir Edward Downes.

[Beef Oven!]

I'm very much with JLW on this and the 7th affects me every bit as profoundly as ER. I don't, however, hear triumph at the end but a monstrous anger, a boiling over of rage. What DSCH had to say about the 7th in Testimony, (true or not) that the Psalms of David, especially those dealing with revenge, should be read before the Symphony resonates very strongly with me. Try it and see.

Incidentally, I attended a 1983 Prom performance given by the BBC PO (then BBC Northern) conducted by Sir Edward Downes.

I'm best ambivalent regarding this symphony but it's unusual for me to be out of synch with you on orchestral music, so I guess I've another prompt to re-listen.

I was going to give it a whirl today on a fairly uninhabited beach with a couple of beers, but I went for symphony no. 11 instead by Wigglesworth (followed by Can's Ege Bamyasi ).

Must give 7 a focused listen ...

[Barbirollians]

I am very fond of it - got to know it from Bournemouth/Berglund recording which for some reason I recall had tanks on the cover .

Mark Simpson a BBCYM who gets a concerto to play .

[Bryn]

I'm best ambivalent regarding this symphony but it's unusual for me to be out of synch with you on orchestral music, so I guess I've another prompt to re-listen.

I was going to give it a whirl today on a fairly uninhabited beach with a couple of beers, but I went for symphony no. 11 instead by Wigglesworth (followed by Can's Ege Bamyasi ).

Must give 7 a focused listen ...

If you can find a recording of a performance conducted by Downes, do so. He has a real affinity with the work.

for instance. There are other Downes performances on YouTube, I think.

Sadly, I don't think any record company has had the nowse to issue any of Downes's live performances, on disc.

[Beef Oven!]

If you can find a recording of a performance conducted by Downes, do so. He has a real affinity with the work.

for instance. There are other Downes performances on YouTube, I think.

Sadly, I don't think any record company has had the nowse to issue any of Downes's live performances, on disc.

Thank you very much Bryn. I shall give this a listen when I'm next on wi-fi so as not to eat my mobile roaming allowance.

[BBMmk2]

#17 JLW. Yes agreed entirely. It’s one of my all time favourites of any!

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Magnus Lindberg (b 1958) Clarinet Concerto

The Ondine recording of Lindberg's Clarinet Concerto, with dedicatee Kari Kriikku as soloist and the Finnish Radio SO conductede by Sakari Oramo, made a bit of a stir when it was released in 2005, and the piece has kept a place in the repertoire since. It isn't difficult to see why - it is an enjoyable piece, in a style heavily indebted to Lutoslawski, but with moments that wouldn't sound out-of-place in a Second Copland Clarinet Concerto. Indeed, listening to it again yesterday, the strongest impression that came across to me was that it sounded as if a Musicologist had put together a performing version of sketches for a Clarinet Concero by Lutoslawski, but had left some bits to be filled in by a Copland specialist. I quite enjoyed it, without being particularly thrilled by it - and without coming away with much of an idea what Lindberg's own "voice" might sound like.

So - for me a programme in which there's a piece I think I shall quite enjoy, that doesn't give much indication of the composer's individual style, and a work I shall (almost certainly) detest, that is unmistakably in the style of its composer!

[teamsaint]

Anybody else tend to listen to this symphony when it is being performed live, but tend not to spin CDs of it too often?

[Joseph K]

Enjoyed the Clarinet Concerto... but then I knew I would (I have the recording).

[bluestateprommer]

Mark Simpson just knocked it out of the park (apologies for the Americanism; RF knows its meaning) with ML's Clarinet Concerto; amazing playing throughout, and great accompaniment from JM and the BBC Phil. His encore, Patrick Nunn's Eid milaad saeed (archived in the Forum Calendar entry), wasn't too shabby either.

I fall into the mixed mind camp regarding DSCH 7. It's clearly an artistic product of its time (granted that all works of art are products of their time, but this work especially so because of particular historical circumstances), and is very uneven musically, IMHO. In anticipation of this Prom performance, as Mena is a rather low-key, non-interventionist conductor, JM might minimize the OTT aspects of the music, in a good way. Very fine interval talk going on now with Anastasia Belina and David Nice, and Petroc as moderator (the BBC is certainly getting their money's worth from Petroc today).

[Petrushka]

Anybody else tend to listen to this symphony when it is being performed live, but tend not to spin CDs of it too often?

Not me. However, a live performance is a terrific experience. I've often recounted on here when I attended the 1998 Gergiev Prom seated in one of those seats situated on the edge of the platform. It was an utterly shattering experience, completely caught up in a hurricane of sound. No CD will ever give you that.