Weekend Edition: The week’s best reads

Weekend Edition: The week’s best reads http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-magazine-monitor-34637670

A riot of scents at Delhi’s oldest perfumery

A riot of scents at Delhi’s oldest perfumery http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-india-34674507

Work begins on UK’s new UK Mid-East base

Work begins on UK’s new UK Mid-East base http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-34690895

UN and Red Cross rebuke world leaders

UN and Red Cross rebuke world leaders http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-34690546

Sinai plane crash: IS claim rejected

Sinai plane crash: IS claim rejected http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-34690936

Bangladeshi publisher hacked to death

Bangladeshi publisher hacked to death http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-34688245

best readings: The Art of War by Sun Tzu

The Art of War- Sunzi_Librivox
https://archive.org/details/art_of_war_librivox (click here to access website)

The Art of War

by Sun Tzu

Published November 2, 2006

Usage Public Domain

Topics librivox, audiobook, literature, war, Sun Tzu, Sunzi, Lionel Giles

 

Librivox recording of The Art of War by Sun Tzu, translated by Lionel Giles.

Read by Moira Fogarty.

“The Art of War is a Chinese military treatise written during the 6th century BC by Sun Tzu. Composed of 13 chapters, each of which is devoted to one aspect of warfare, it has long been praised as the definitive work on military strategies and tactics of its time. The Art of War is one of the oldest and most famous studies of strategy and has had a huge influence on both military planning and beyond. The Art of War has also been applied, with much success, to business and managerial strategies.” (summary from Wikipedia)

For more information on our readers, please visit the catalog page

For more free audiobooks, or to become a volunteer reader, please visit librivox.org.

Download M4B (17MB)

Access here: The LibriVox Free Audiobook Collection

The LibriVox Free Audiobook Collection

LibriVox – founded in 2005 – is a community of volunteers from all over the world who record public domain texts: poetry, short stories, whole books, even dramatic works, in many different languages. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain in the USA and available as free down

The LibriVox Free Audiobook Collection (Click to access the Website!)

Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, by Lewis Carroll by Lewis Carroll

Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, by Lewis Carroll
by Lewis Carroll

Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, by Lewis Carroll

by Lewis Carroll

Published January 11, 2006

Topics literature, children, audiobook, librivox

 

Librivox recording of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, by Lewis Carroll. A children’s classic!

Read by:
Chapter 01 Kristen McQuillin
Chapter 02 Brad Bush
Chapter 03 Roger W. Barnett
Chapter 04 Miette
Chapter 05 Mark Bradford
Chapter 06 Raza Shah
Chapter 07 Kara Shallenberg
Chapter 08 Kristen McQuillin
Chapter 09 MarinaMechanical
Chapter 10 Roger W. Barnett
Chapter 11 R. Francis Smith
Chapter 12 Chris Goringe

For further information, including links to online text, reader information, RSS feeds, CD cover or other formats (if available), please go to the LibriVox catalog page for this recording.

For more information or to become a volunteer reader, please visit librivox.org/

Download M4B (84MB)

Saint of the Day for Saturday, October 31st, 2015: St. Wolfgang

Saint of the Day for Saturday, October 31st, 2015

St. Wolfgang

Wolfgang (d. 994) + Bishop and reformer. Born in Swabia, Germany, he studied at Reichenau under the Benedictines and at Wurzburg before serving as a teacher in the cathedral school of Trier. He soon … continue reading

More Saints of the Day

St. Wolfgang St. Abaidas St. Antoninus St. Arnulf

St. Bega St. Erth St. Notburga St. Quentin

CARL MARIA VON WEBER. Symphony No. 1 in C major, Op. 19

Carlos Garcia

Published on Jul 7, 2014

CARL MARIA VON WEBER.-

Symphony No. 1 in C major,  Op. 19

Movements:

I. Allegro con Fuoco
II. Andante
III. Scherzo and Trio
IV. Finale: Presto

Cappella Coloniensis

Director: Bruno Weil

Carl Maria von Weber is best known as a composer of operas, but in fact write two symphonies. The first symphony was written in 1806 to 1807, shortly after the premiere of Beethoven’s Third Symphony, “Eroica ‘. Beethoven symphonic put the world upside down with the heroic, and his fourth symphony followed closely. The two symphonies Weber, although interesting and melodious, were written at once faithful to his style in the classic style. They were overshadowed at the outset by Beethoven and developments were almost forgotten until its revival in the 20th century Weber had just begun a visit to the music lover Duke of Württemberg-ols, whose palace was in a forest and boasted a small orchestra that Duke liked to play the oboe inch Weber wrote his two symphonies for this small orchestra consisting of a flute, two oboes, two bassoons, two horns, two trumpets, timpani and strings, without clarinets. The first movement is in sonata form, and shows the amount of Weber and understood the orchestra. His gift for melody shines throughout the movement. But it is with the second movement Andante showing Weber style for the dramatic, even when writing for solo instruments. It is a short movement (as all movements of the symphony are, the whole symphony takes only about 25 minutes), but it has a dark instrumental color which makes it the most unique in the symphony movement. The third movement is a scherzo with a prominent part of the oboe. The end is a high-spirited movement in sonata form that brings the symphony to a poignant end. Weber first symphony is not the best music he wrote. Weber himself acknowledged in a letter to a friend, when he expressed how he could have solved things better in the symphony. But still a very nice piece of music and has flashes of the talent that was to Weber one of the founders of the Romantic movement in music.

 

Best classical music: Alexander Scriabin Piano Concerto f-sharp minor opus 20 – II. Andante

Alexander Scriabin Piano Concerto f-sharp minor opus 20 – II. Andante

Lars Nelissen

Uploaded on May 26, 2009

II. Andante
piano: Anatol Ugorski
Chicago Symphony Orchestra
conducted by: Pierre Boulez

Scriabin finished his piano concerto when 24 years old. The concerto is full with elegance and brilliance. We enter the magical world of Scriabin’s psyche! It is said that Scriabin’s earlier works remind of Chopin, yet there’s no question Scriabin’s “style” is a very personal one with his own message, his own flavors and colours; – just like Mozart writing in a style that reminds of Haydn and even Pergolesi, he had his own “style” and every note was “new”!

Historic Musical Bits: Mozart: Piano concerto n. No. 21 in C major, K.467(“Elvira Madigan”) Pollini-Muti

Mozart: Piano concerto n. No. 21 in C major, K.467 (“Elvira Madigan”) Pollini-Muti

Alessandro152

Uploaded on Sep 12, 2011

Mozart:Piano Concerto No. 21 in C major, K. 467

Orchestra filarmonica della Scala
Maurizio Pollini, piano
Riccardo Muti, conductor
(2004)
************************************************

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart –

Piano Concerto No. 21,

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

The Piano Concerto No. 21 in C major, K. 467, was completed on March 9, 1785 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, four weeks after the completion of the previous D minor concerto, K. 466.^[1][2]

Structure

	Third movement Performed by: Giorgi Latso, piano
Problems playing this file? See media help.

The concerto has three movements:

1. Allegro maestoso; in common time. The tempo marking is in Mozart’s catalog of his own works, but not in the autograph manuscript.^[3]
2. Andante in F major. In both the autograph score and in his personal catalog, Mozart notated the meter as Alla breve. ^[3]
3. Allegro vivace assai

The opening movement begins quietly with a march figure, but quickly moves to a more lyrical melody interspersed with a fanfare in the winds. The music grows abruptly in volume, with the violins taking up the principal melody over the march theme, which is now played by the brass. This uplifting theme transitions to a brief, quieter interlude distinguished by a sighing motif in the brass. The march returns, eventually transitioning to the entrance of the soloist. The soloist plays a brief Eingang (a type of abbreviated Cadenza) before resolving to a trill on the dominant G while the strings play the march in C major. The piano then introduces new material in C major and begins transitioning to the dominant key of G major. Immediately after an orchestral cadence finally announces the arrival of the dominant, the music abruptly shifts to G minor in a passage that is reminiscent of the main theme of the Symphony No. 40 in that key.^[4] A series of rising and falling chromatic scales then transition the music to the true second theme of the piece, an ebullient G major theme which Mozart had previously used in his Third Horn Concerto. The usual development and recapitulation follow. There is a cadenza at the end of the movement, although Mozart’s original has been lost.

The famous Andante is in three parts. The opening section is for orchestra only and features muted strings. The first violins play with a dreamlike melody over an accompaniment consisting of second violins and violas playing repeated-note triplets and the cellos and bass playing pizzicato arpeggios. All of the major melodic material of the movement is contained in this orchestral introduction, in either F major or F minor. The second section introduces the solo piano and starts off in F major. It is not a literal repeat, though, as after the first few phrases, new material is interjected which ventures off into different keys. When familiar material returns, the music is now in the dominant keys of C minor and C major. More new material in distant keys is added, which transitions to the third section of the movement. The third section begins with the dreamlike melody again, but this time in A-flat major. Over the course of this final section, the music makes it way back to the tonic keys of F minor and then F major and a short coda concludes the movement.

The final rondo movement begins with the full orchestra espousing a joyous “jumping” theme. After a short cadenza, the piano joins in and further elaborates. A “call and response” style is apparent, with the piano and ensemble exchanging parts fluidly. The soloist gets scale and arpeggio figurations that enhance the themes, as well as a short cadenza that leads right back to the main theme. The main theme appears one final time, leading to an upward rush of scales that ends on a triumphant note.

Cultural references

The second movement was featured in the 1967 Swedish film Elvira Madigan.^[1][5] This has led to an anachronistic nickname of Elvira Madigan for the concerto.^[6][7][8]

Neil Diamond‘s 1972 song “Song Sung Blue” was based on a theme from the andante movement of the concerto.^[9]

An electronic arrangement of the concerto’s first movement was used as the main theme of the TV series Whiz Kids.
-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-

great compositions/performances: Strauss, R., Duet Concertino, Chamber Orchestra of New York

Strauss, R., Duet Concertino, Chamber Orchestra of New York

Chamber Orchestra of New York

Uploaded on Feb 12, 2012

Duet Concertino, by Richard Strauss. Chamber Orchestra of New York; Salvatore Di Vittorio, Music Director. February 3, 2012 at Caspary Auditorium, The Rockefeller University, New York, NY. Kelly Hall-Tompkins, concertmaster. Soloists: Benjamin Baron, clarinet and Stephanie Corwin, bassoon.

http://www.chambeorchestraofnewyork.org

great compositions/performances: Lenárd conducts Glazunov – The Seasons (complete ballet)

Lenárd conducts Glazunov – The Seasons (complete ballet)

MB7classical

TopClassicalMusic

Published on Apr 26, 2015

Aleksandr Konstantinovitch Glazunov

Published on Mar 15, 2012

Dedicated to my dancer friend Daiva: – http://www.youtube.com/user/daiva196510

Artwork by my friend Artondra: – http://www.flickr.com/photos/projecta…

Tracks from this album: – http://www.amazon.com/Glazunov-The-Se…

Ondrej Lenárd conducts the Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra.

About the composer: – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexande…

About the ballet: – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Seas…)

WINTER
Introduction
Four Variations – begins 2:14
Frost – 3:38
Ice – 4:39
Hail – 5:55
Snow – 6:48
Coda – 7:39

SPRING – begins 10:04

SUMMER
Scene – begins 15:21
Waltz of the Cornflowers and the Poppies – 17:55
Barcarolle – 19:54
Variations – 22:03
Coda – 23:07

AUTUMN
Bacchanale and Appearance of the Seasons – begins 27:17
Adagio – 31:03
Scene and Apotheosis – 34:48

( Note that Spring and the first section of Summer form one continuous movement, although separated into different tracks. )

Best Autumn Music: Autumn Music – Beautiful Autumn – Beautiful Music okanokumo

Published on Sep 11, 2014

Thank you for the comment which remains in my heart.
00:00 Blue pond
02:13 Soft sunlight of autumn
05:03 Moving sunset
07:40 Rural autumn
10:04 Valley in autumn
12:17 Fresh snow Mountain range
14:09 Autumnal tree
16:11 Rural landscape
18:37 That autumn remains in my heart
28:44 That autumn reaches in my heart
39:31 Misty morning
42:41 Warm evening of autumn
46:52 Fine autumn day
48:58 Woods which became yellow
51:21 Various autumnal leaves
53:54 Winter comes soon.
57:11 Autumn of my heart

 

Today’s holiday: Guavaween

Guavaween

Guavaween is a parade and block party with a Latin flavor in Ybor City, a two-square-mile area in Tampa, Florida. The “guava” stands for the tropical American fruit, while the “ween” alludes to the festival’s resemblance to Halloween, also observed around this time of year. The parade, with 20 to 50 bands, is led by a woman portraying the mythical “Mama Guava” doing the “Mama Guava Stumble.” Many paraders wear costumes lampooning national figures. After the early evening parade, there is partying until the wee hours. More… Discuss

Great compositions/performances: Mendelssohn – Violin Sonata in F minor, Op. 4 Classical Music Best Piano and Violin

Mendelssohn – Violin Sonata in F minor, Op. 4 – Classical Music Best Piano and Violin

Live your Dreams 2

Published on May 11, 2014

Violin Sonata in F minor, Op. 4 by Felix Mendelssohn.

I. Adagio – Allegro moderato (0:00)
II. Poco adagio (7:15)
III. Allegro agitato (15:08)

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The Violin Sonata in F minor, Op. 4, for violin and piano was composed by Felix Mendelssohn in 1825 and is the only one to carry an opus number. Mendelssohn composed two other violin sonatas, both in F major, that are without opus numbers.

Unlike his famous violin work, the Violin Concerto in E minor, the sonata lacks dramatic expositions, however still containing composer’s calm chamber music and early-onset brilliancy.

QUOTATION: It is not that the Englishman can’t feel—it is that he is afraid to feel. E. M. Forster (1879-1970)

It is not that the Englishman can’t feel—it is that he is afraid to feel. He has been taught at his public school that feeling is bad form. He must not express great joy or sorrow, or even open his mouth too wide when he talks—his pipe might fall out if he did.

E. M. Forster (1879-1970) Discuss

this day in the yesteryear: Enron CFO Andrew Fastow Indicted for Fraud (2002)

Enron CFO Andrew Fastow Indicted for Fraud (2002)

In 2000, natural gas and electricity trading giant Enron was the seventh largest corporation in the US. In 2001, it became the largest bankruptcy and stock collapse in US history at the time, devastating the pensions of some 20,000 employees. Fastow, Enron’s chief financial officer, was one of more than 20 people who were ultimately convicted of or pleaded guilty to fraud, conspiracy, and other crimes related to deceptive accounting practices. How long is Fastow’s prison sentence? More… Discuss

today’s birthday: John Keats (1795)

John Keats (1795)

Considered one of the greatest English poets, Keats worked as a surgeon’s apprentice before devoting himself entirely to poetry at age 21. During a few intense months in 1819, he produced many of his greatest works, including “Ode on a Grecian Urn,” “Ode to a Nightingale,” and “To Autumn.” His Lamia, Isabella, The Eve of St. Agnes, and Other Poems is perhaps the greatest single volume of poetry published in England in the 19th century. Tragically, Keats died at just 25 from what disease? More… Discuss

Earth First!

In 1980, a group of radical environmental activists formed the group Earth First!, pledging “No Compromise in Defense of Mother Earth!” In 1985, the group held its first “tree sit,” in which members sat in and around trees to prevent logging. From about 1987 on, the group turned to direct action tactics and attracted many new members. Though the organization has its roots in the US, chapters have developed in countries spanning the globe. What was the Merseyside Dock Action? More… Discuss

word: phytophagous

phytophagous

Definition:	(adjective) Feeding on plants, including shrubs and trees.
Synonyms:	plant-eating, phytophilous
Usage:	The dot moth is phytophagous, feeding on a wide variety of plants. Discuss.

‘No survivors’ in Sinai airline crash

‘No survivors’ in Sinai airline crash

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-34687139

From NPR News

Tainted Treats: Racism And The Rise Of Big Candy http://n.pr/1HhfW4q

Russian plane ‘crashes in Sinai’

Russian plane ‘crashes in Sinai’ http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-34687139

Stunning Nasa images capture hints of Saturn moon’s underground ocean

Stunning Nasa images capture hints of Saturn moon’s underground ocean

http://gu.com/p/4dm6j?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_WordPress

US special forces in Syria are Obama’s latest broken foreign policy promise

US special forces in Syria are Obama’s latest broken foreign policy promise

http://gu.com/p/4dnmv?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_WordPress

Why the Salem witch trials still haunt the American imagination

Why the Salem witch trials still haunt the American imagination

http://gu.com/p/4dmp7?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_WordPress

Syria decision the latest blow to Obama’s Middle East legacy

Syria decision the latest blow to Obama’s Middle East legacy

http://gu.com/p/4dnyy?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_WordPress

Heat-triggered ‘grenades’ hit cancer

Heat-triggered ‘grenades’ hit cancer

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-34667804

Heat-triggered ‘grenades’ hit cancer

Heat-triggered ‘grenades’ hit cancer http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-34667804

Syria: If not Assad, then who?

Syria: If not Assad, then who?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-34676238

Gulag museum recreates Soviet terror

Gulag museum recreates Soviet terror

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-34675413

Will you miss Facebook’s ‘other’ inbox?

Will you miss Facebook’s ‘other’ inbox? http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-34676927

Tor launches hidden chat tool

Tor launches hidden chat tool http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-34677323

Black activists disrupt Clinton rally

Black activists disrupt Clinton rally http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-34684809

US to send special forces into Syria

US to send special forces into Syria http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-34681648

Germany seeks to slow migrant flow

Germany seeks to slow migrant flow http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-34683056

World powers step up Syria peace quest

World powers step up Syria peace quest http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-34673535

Romanian nightclub explosion leaves 26 dead, dozens injured

http://news.yahoo.com/romanian-nightclub-blast-leaves-25-dead-dozens-injured-224939326.html
Romanian nightclub explosion leaves 26 dead, dozens injured

The porcupine tree Today

The porcupine tree Today

this Pressed: Misterul unei crime vechi de 500 de ani, din pădurea bântuită a Clujului. Erorile au fost descifrate abia acum de un criminalist istoric | adevarul.ro

Experienţa de peste un deceniu la Investigaţii Criminale şi cercetările istorice l-au făcut pe poliţistul Gabriel Rusu să înţeleagă că omul e capabil de o cruzime nebănuită, indiferent de secolul de care vorbim.Ştiri pe aceeaşi temă Locuri bântuite din Cluj. Poveşti cu fantome de odinioară: contesa de …La cei 48 de ani, Gabriel Virgil Rusu a văzut multe grozăvii de care oamenii civilizaţi spun că doar monştrii fără suflet din trecut ar fi capabili să le săvârşească. Însă, realitatea contrazice gândurile oamenilor. ”Să ştiţi că, uneori, parcă trecutul trece fără rost. Am asistat mai demult la o pruncucidere. O femeie îşi aruncase nou-născutul în latrină, la fel ca o alta în 1593”, concluzionează dezamăgit omul legii.A făcut Dreptul la Academia de Poliţie, apoi Istoria la Cluj. Jurist de formaţie, a lucrat 11 ani la Investigaţii Criminale, iar acum este adjunct la Şcoala de Agenţi de Poliţie ”Septimiu Mureşan” din Cluj şi, când are timp, cercetează trecutul prin arhive şi biblioteci. Iar lucrurile interesante pe care le găseşte le spune şi altora sub forma cărţilor şi articolelor.Crima din pădurea bântuită Un astfel de exemplu este materialul publicat în volumul ”Poveşti despre Cluj”, lansat în urmă cu câteva săptămâni. Textul are la bază scrisoarea unui iezuit către superiorii săi unde este descris modul injust în care a fost rezolvată o crimă la 1582. Poliţistul căuta informaţii pentru teza de doctorat când a dat peste impresiile iezuitului Ştefan Szanto, zis Arator, într-o colecţie de documente publicate de Maria Holban, ”Călători străini despre Ţările Române”, apărute prin anii 70. Ştefan Szanto era un călugăr iezuit maghiar, trimis în 1580, la Cluj, la solicitarea principelui Transilvaniei de atunci, Ştefan Bathory, ca să consolideze Colegiul iezuit existent în oraş. Szanto petrece 4 ani la Cluj, perioada în care descrie, în corespondenţa sa cu superiorii, lumea transilvană din a doua jumătate a secolului al XV-lea.Poliţistul clujean a luat Codul Penal actual, a încercat să vadă ce pedepse erau atunci, cum se pedeapseau acestea atunci şi a alcătuit un cod virtual al infracţiunilor de odinioară. ”La omor am găsit această speţă comisă în Cluj-Mănăştur de necunoscuţi, apoi identificată în persoana celor patru ciobani, din care doi au ajuns să fie condamnaţi”, explică Gabriel Rusu (foto dreapta, credit: arhivă personală)

Source: Misterul unei crime vechi de 500 de ani, din pădurea bântuită a Clujului. Erorile au fost descifrate abia acum de un criminalist istoric | adevarul.ro

great compositions/performances: Antonin Dvorak : Serenade for String Op 22

Antonin Dvorak : Serenade for String Op 22

jessiemelody1

Published on Aug 27, 2013

I. Moderato
The first movement starts off the Serenade in the key of E major. The second violins and cellos introduce the lyrical main theme of the movement over an eighth note pulse played by the violas. The main theme is traded back and forth, and then the second violins play it under a soaring passage in the first violins.
At measure 31, the movement modulates into G major and a new dancelike theme, based on a dotted eighth note/sixteenth note rhythm, is introduced. At measure 54, the movement modulates back into E major and we see the return of the primary theme. The movement ends on three E major chords.

II. Tempo di Valse
The second movement, a waltz, opens with a lilting dance melody in C-sharp minor. The first section repeats, and the second section begins in E major. A string of eighth notes in the violins transitions into the second theme, also in E major. The first theme returns, and Part A is closed with a cadential fortissimo C-sharp minor chord.
Part B opens with a modulation into the enharmonic parallel major of C-sharp minor, D-flat major. The theme of this section is developed, and then Part A returns. The movement ends on a C-sharp major chord.

III. Scherzo: Vivace
The third movement is a lively, hyperactive Scherzo in F major. The theme is stated and subsequently developed in sections of different tempos and moods, including a foray into A major. The most monothematic movement yet, the scherzo ends with a coda combining material from the Scherzo and Trio.

IV. Larghetto
The fourth movement of the Serenade is a tranquil, wistful slow movement. The movement’s flowing melodies and tender phrases form a buffer between the vigorous third and fifth movements. The third theme of the Tempo di Valse is quoted repeatedly throughout the movement.

V. Finale: Allegro vivace
The fifth and final movement is a lively, off-beat finale to the Serenade, conveying the spirit of a Bohemian village dance. The principal theme of the movement is a descending figure based on thirds with an accent off the second beat. More thematic material enters at bar 32 as the violins and cellos trade calls and responses over running eighth notes played by the violas. A third theme based primarily on sixteenth note pickups appears at bar 87. A wistful recollection of the melody from the preceding Larghetto appears and then diminuendos away.
The movement’s recapitulation starts with the main theme, which is followed in turn by the second and third themes. A 20-bar eighth note passage leads into a quotation of the first movement’s theme, bringing the piece full circle to its point of origin. A presto coda follows, and the Serenade is ended with three E major chords.

Antonín Dvořák’s Serenade for Strings in E major Op. 22, was composed in just two weeks in May 1875. It remains one of the composer’s more popular orchestral works to this day.
(WarrenGreen)

cover by The Serenade – Federico Andreotti (Italy 1847-1930) Academic Classical artist.

great compositions/performances: Willem van Twillert plays, J.S. Bach, Bist du bei mir [BWV 508], Hinsz-organ, Leens

Willem van Twillert plays, J.S. Bach, Bist du bei mir [BWV 508], Hinsz-organ, Leens

Willem van Twillert

Published on Feb 6, 2015

Willem van Twillert plays, J.S. Bach, bist du bei mir [BWV 508], Mel. Gottfried Heinrich Stölzel, Hinsz-organ, Leens [NL]
Audio recording, Marien Stouten
Video and video editing, Studio Logtenberg, Assen
Production, Foundation P.O.P. [Promotion Organ Projects, Amersfoort] .
http://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Willem_v…
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Willem_v… [Auf Deutsch; German Text]

historic musical bits: F. Mendelssohn-Bartholdy – Suite ‘Ein Sommernachtstraum’ / A Midsummer Night’s Dream Op. 61

F. Mendelssohn-Bartholdy – Suite ‘Ein Sommernachtstraum’ / A Midsummer Night’s Dream Op. 61 (Live)

thiagoblanco

Published on Mar 11, 2012

Suite – “Ein Sommernachtstraum” op. 61 / Suite – A Midsummer Night’s Dream Op. 61

– Overture
– Scherzo
– Intermezzo
– Nocturne
– Wedding March

Orchestra: WDR Sinfonieorchester Köln
Conductor: Ton Koopman
Composer: Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy (1809 – 1847)

historic musical bits: Shostakovich Plays Shostakovich – Piano Concerto No. 2 in F major, Op. 102

Shostakovich Plays Shostakovich – Piano Concerto No. 2 in F major, Op. 102

Published on Apr 10, 2013

Dmitri Shostakovich
Piano Concerto No. 2 in F major, Op. 102

Dmitri Shostakovich, piano

Orchestre National de la Radiodiffusion Française
André Cluytens, conductor
********************************************************

Instrumentation

The work is scored for solo piano, three flutes (third doubling piccolo), two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, four horns, timpani, snare drum and strings.

Movements

The concerto lasts around 20 minutes and has three movements, with the second movement played attacca, thereby moving directly into the third (although the second movement does come to an acceptable resolution in C minor, such that the third movement is not entirely necessary to bring the music to a conclusion):

1. Allegro

   The jolly main theme of the first movement is played first by the bassoon, then soon accompanied by the clarinets and oboes. The piano enters unobtrusively with an answering theme, played as single notes in both hands an octave apart. A new theme in D minor, unisons two octaves apart on the piano, gives a song-like effect, winding down to nothing when an abrupt blast from the orchestra leads into tumultuous and jumping octaves in the lower piano register while the orchestra plays a variation on the original piano melody fortissimo. The piano builds in a triplet pattern to introduce the D minor theme (now in D major) in an augmentation in a triumphant tutti. At the climax, everything comes to a silent pause, and the piano comes in with a fugue-like counterpoint solo. After a minute of the fugue, the orchestra comes back in, playing the melody in the high winds. The orchestra builds on the main melody while the piano plays scales and tremolos, which lead into a joyous few lines of chords and octaves by the piano, with the main theme finally resurfacing and bringing the movement to a close.

2. Andante

   The second movement is subdued and romantic. The mood can be considered tender with a touch of melancholy. Strings start gently in C minor, with a short introduction before the piano comes in with a gentle triplet theme in C major. Although it remains slow throughout, and works within a comparatively small range, it is marked by the recurrence of two- or four-on-three rhythms. The expressiveness of this movement is notable.

3. Allegro

   The finale is a lively dance in duple time, making much use of pentatonic scales and modes. Soon, the second theme is introduced, in 7/8 time, with the piano accompanied by balalaika-like pizzicato strings. This carries on for a short time before a new motif arrives in “Hanon” exercise mode, with scales in sixths and semiquaver runs, this being the joke for Maxim’s graduation. These three themes are then developed and interwoven before a final statement of the 7/8 theme and finally a virtuoso coda in F major.

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Dmitri Shostakovich

“Shostakovich” redirects here. For the conductor and son of Dmitri Shostakovich, see Maxim Shostakovich.

This name uses Eastern Slavic naming customs; the patronymic is Dmitriyevich and the family name is Shostakovich.

Dmitri Shostakovich in 1950

Dmitri Dmitriyevich Shostakovich (Russian:  Дми́трий Дми́триевич Шостако́вич , tr. Dmitriy Dmitrievich Shostakovich, pronounced [ˈdmʲitrʲɪj ˈdmʲitrʲɪɪvʲɪtɕ ʂəstɐˈkovʲɪtɕ]; 25 September^[1] 1906 – 9 August 1975) was a Russian composer and pianist, and a prominent figure of 20th-century music.^[2]

Shostakovich achieved fame in the Soviet Union under the patronage of Soviet chief of staff Mikhail Tukhachevsky, but later had a complex and difficult relationship with the government. Nevertheless, he received accolades and state awards and served in the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR (1947–1962) and the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union (from 1962 until his death).

A poly-stylist, Shostakovich developed a hybrid voice, combining a variety of different musical techniques into his music. Shostakovich’s music is characterized by sharp contrasts, elements of the grotesque, and ambivalent tonality; the composer was also heavily influenced by the neo-classical style pioneered by Igor Stravinsky, and (especially in his symphonies) by the post-Romanticism associated with Gustav Mahler.

Shostakovich’s orchestral works include 15 symphonies and six concerti. His chamber output includes 15 string quartets, a piano quintet, two piano trios, and two pieces for string octet. His piano works include two solo sonatas, an early set of preludes, and a later set of 24 preludes and fugues. Other works include three operas, several song cycles, ballets, and a substantial quantity of film music; especially well known is The Second Waltz, Op. 99, music to the film The First Echelon (ru) (1955–1956), as well as the Suites composed for The Gadfly.^[3][4]

Biography

Early life

Birthplace of Shostakovich (now School No. 267). Commemorative plaque at left

Born at Podolskaya street in Saint Petersburg, Russia, Shostakovich was the second of three children of Dmitri Boleslavovich Shostakovich and Sofiya Vasilievna Kokoulina. Shostakovich’s paternal grandfather, originally surnamed Szostakowicz, was of Polish Roman Catholic descent (his family roots trace to the region of the town of Vileyka in today’s Belarus), but his immediate forebears came from Siberia.^[5] A Polish revolutionary in the January Uprising of 1863–4, Bolesław Szostakowicz would be exiled to Narym (near Tomsk) in 1866 in the crackdown that followed Dmitri Karakozov‘s assassination attempt on Tsar Alexander II.^[6] When his term of exile ended, Szostakowicz decided to remain in Siberia. He eventually became a successful banker in Irkutsk and raised a large family. His son, Dmitri Boleslavovich Shostakovich, the composer’s father, was born in exile in Narim in 1875 and studied physics and mathematics in Saint Petersburg University, graduating in 1899. He then went to work as an engineer under Dmitri Mendeleev at the Bureau of Weights and Measures in Saint Petersburg. In 1903, he married another Siberian transplant to the capital, Sofiya Vasilievna Kokoulina, one of six children born to a Russian Siberian native.^[6]

Their son, Dmitri Dmitriyevich Shostakovich, displayed significant musical talent after he began piano lessons with his mother at the age of nine. On several occasions, he displayed a remarkable ability to remember what his mother had played at the previous lesson, and would get “caught in the act” of playing the previous lesson’s music while pretending to read different music placed in front of him.^[7] In 1918, he wrote a funeral march in memory of two leaders of the Kadet party, murdered by Bolshevik sailors.^[8]

In 1919, at the age of thirteen, he was allowed to enter the Petrograd Conservatory, then headed by Alexander Glazunov, who monitored Shostakovich’s progress closely and promoted him.^[9] Shostakovich studied piano with Leonid Nikolayev after a year in the class of Elena Rozanova, composition with Maximilian Steinberg, and counterpoint and fugue with Nikolay Sokolov, with whom he became friends.^[10] Shostakovich also attended Alexander Ossovsky‘s history of music classes.^[11] Steinberg tried to guide Shostakovich in the path of the great Russian composers, but was disappointed to see him ‘wasting’ his talent and imitating Igor Stravinsky and Sergei Prokofiev. He also suffered for his perceived lack of political zeal, and initially failed his exam in Marxist methodology in 1926. His first major musical achievement was the First Symphony (premiered 1926), written as his graduation piece at the age of nineteen.

Shostakovich in 1925

Early career

After graduation, Shostakovich initially embarked on a dual career as concert pianist and composer, but his dry style of playing was often unappreciated (his American biographer, Laurel Fay, comments on his “emotional restraint” and “riveting rhythmic drive”). He nevertheless won an “honorable mention” at the First International Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw in 1927. After the competition Shostakovich met the conductor Bruno Walter, who was so impressed by the composer’s First Symphony that he conducted it at its Berlin premiere later that year. Leopold Stokowski was equally impressed and gave the work its U.S. premiere the following year in Philadelphia and also made the work’s first recording.

Thereafter, Shostakovich concentrated on composition and soon limited his performances primarily to those of his own works. In 1927 he wrote his Second Symphony (subtitled To October), a patriotic piece with a great pro-Soviet choral finale. Due to its experimental nature, as with the subsequent Third Symphony, the pieces were not critically acclaimed with the enthusiasm granted to the First.

The year 1927 also marked the beginning of Shostakovich’s relationship with Ivan Sollertinsky, who remained his closest friend until the latter’s death in 1944. Sollertinsky introduced the composer to the music of Gustav Mahler, which had a strong influence on his music from the Fourth Symphony onwards.

While writing the Second Symphony, Shostakovich also began work on his satirical opera The Nose, based on the story by Gogol. In June 1929, the opera was given a concert performance, against Shostakovich’s own wishes, and was ferociously attacked by the Russian Association of Proletarian Musicians (RAPM).^[12] Its stage premiere on 18 January 1930 opened to generally poor reviews and widespread incomprehension amongst musicians.^[13]

Shostakovich composed his first film score for the 1929 silent movie, The New Babylon, set during the 1871 Paris Commune.

In the late 1920s and early 1930s, Shostakovich worked at TRAM, a proletarian youth theatre. Although he did little work in this post, it shielded him from ideological attack. Much of this period was spent writing his opera, Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District, which was first performed in 1934. It was immediately successful, on both popular and official levels. It was described as “the result of the general success of Socialist construction, of the correct policy of the Party”, and as an opera that “could have been written only by a Soviet composer brought up in the best tradition of Soviet culture”.^[14]

Shostakovich married his first wife, Nina Varzar, in 1932. Initial difficulties led to a divorce in 1935, but the couple soon remarried when Nina became pregnant with their first child.^[15]

First denunciation

Muddle instead of music, article published on Pravda on January 18, 1936, harshly criticizing Shostakovich’s Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk.

In 1936, Shostakovich fell from official favour. The year began with a series of attacks on him in Pravda, in particular an article entitled, “Muddle Instead of Music“. Shostakovich was away on a concert tour in Arkhangelsk when he heard news of the first Pravda article. Two days before the article was published on the evening of 28 January,^[16] a friend had advised Shostakovich to attend the Bolshoi Theatre production of Lady Macbeth. When he arrived, he saw that Joseph Stalin and the Politburo were there. In letters written to his friend Ivan Sollertinsky, Shostakovich recounted the horror with which he watched as Stalin shuddered every time the brass and percussion played too loudly. Equally horrifying was the way Stalin and his companions laughed at the love-making scene between Sergei and Katerina. Eyewitness accounts testify that Shostakovich was “white as a sheet” when he went to take his bow after the third act.^[17]

The article condemned Lady Macbeth as formalist, “coarse, primitive and vulgar”.^[18] Consequently, commissions began to fall off, and his income fell by about three quarters. Even Soviet music critics who had praised the opera were forced to recant in print, saying they “failed to detect the shortcomings of Lady Macbeth as pointed out by Pravda”.^[19] Shortly after the “Muddle Instead of Music” article, Pravda published another, “Ballet Falsehood,” that criticized Shostakovich’s ballet The Limpid Stream. Shostakovich did not expect this second article because the general public and press already accepted this music as “democratic” – that is, tuneful and accessible. However, Pravda criticized The Limpid Stream for incorrectly displaying peasant life on the collective farm.^[20]

More widely, 1936 marked the beginning of the Great Terror, in which many of the composer’s friends and relatives were imprisoned or killed. These included his patron Marshal Tukhachevsky (shot months after his arrest); his brother-in-law Vsevolod Frederiks (a distinguished physicist, who was eventually released but died before he got home); his close friend Nikolai Zhilyayev (a musicologist who had taught Tukhachevsky; shot shortly after his arrest); his mother-in-law, the astronomer Sofiya Mikhaylovna Varzar (sent to a camp in Karaganda); his friend the Marxist writer Galina Serebryakova (20 years in camps); his uncle Maxim Kostrykin (died); and his colleagues Boris Kornilov and Adrian Piotrovsky (executed).^[21] His only consolation in this period was the birth of his daughter Galina in 1936; his son Maxim was born two years later.

Withdrawal of the Fourth Symphony

The publication of the Pravda editorials coincided with the composition of Shostakovich’s Fourth Symphony. The work marked a great shift in style for the composer due to the substantial influence of Gustav Mahler and a number of Western-style elements. The symphony gave Shostakovich compositional trouble, as he attempted to reform his style into a new idiom. The composer was well into the work when the fatal articles appeared. Despite this, Shostakovich continued to compose the symphony and planned a premiere at the end of 1936. Rehearsals began that December, but after a number of rehearsals Shostakovich, for reasons still debated today, decided to withdraw the symphony from the public. A number of his friends and colleagues, such as Isaak Glikman, have suggested that it was in fact an official ban which Shostakovich was persuaded to present as a voluntary withdrawal.^[22] Whatever the case, it seems possible that this action saved the composer’s life: during this time Shostakovich feared for himself and his family. Yet Shostakovich did not repudiate the work; it retained its designation as his Fourth Symphony. A piano reduction was published in 1946, and the work was finally premiered in 1961, well after Stalin’s death.

During 1936 and 1937, in order to maintain as low a profile as possible between the Fourth and Fifth symphonies, Shostakovich mainly composed film music, a genre favored by Stalin and lacking in dangerous personal expression.^[23]

“A Soviet artist’s creative response to just criticism”

The composer’s response to his denunciation was the Fifth Symphony of 1937, which was musically more conservative than his earlier works. Premiering on 21 November 1937 in Leningrad, it was a phenomenal success: many in the Leningrad audience had lost family or friends to the mass executions. The Fifth drove many to tears and welling emotions.^[24] Later, Shostakovich wrote in his supposed memoirs, Testimony: “I’ll never believe that a man who understood nothing could feel the Fifth Symphony. Of course they understood, they understood what was happening around them and they understood what the Fifth was about.”^[25]

The success put Shostakovich in good standing once again. Music critics and the authorities alike, including those who had earlier accused Shostakovich of formalism, claimed that he had learned from his mistakes and had become a true Soviet artist. The composer Dmitry Kabalevsky, who had been among those who disassociated himself from Shostakovich when the Pravda article was published, praised the Fifth Symphony and congratulated Shostakovich for “not having given in to the seductive temptations of his previous ‘erroneous’ ways.”^[26]

It was also at this time that Shostakovich composed the first of his string quartets. His chamber works allowed him to experiment and express ideas which would have been unacceptable in his more public symphonic pieces. In September 1937, he began to teach composition at the Leningrad Conservatory, which provided some financial security but interfered with his own creative work.

Second World War

In 1939, before the Soviet forces attempted to invade Finland, the Party Secretary of Leningrad Andrei Zhdanov commissioned a celebratory piece from Shostakovich, entitled Suite on Finnish Themes to be performed as the marching bands of the Red Army would be parading through the Finnish capital Helsinki. The Winter War was a bitter experience for the Red Army, the parade never happened, and Shostakovich would never lay claim to the authorship of this work.^[27] It was not performed until 2001.^[28]

Lev A. Russov. The Leningrad Symphony conducted by Yevgeny Mravinsky, 1980

After the outbreak of war between the Soviet Union and Germany in 1941, Shostakovich initially remained in Leningrad. He tried to enlist for the military but was turned away because of his poor eyesight. To compensate, Shostakovich became a volunteer for the Leningrad Conservatory’s firefighter brigade and delivered a radio broadcast to the Soviet people  listen . The photograph for which he posed was published in newspapers throughout the country.^[29]

But his greatest and most famous wartime contribution was the Seventh Symphony. The composer wrote the first three movements in Leningrad and completed the work in Kuibyshev (now Samara) where he and his family had been evacuated. Whether or not Shostakovich really conceived the idea of the symphony with the siege of Leningrad in mind, it was officially claimed as a representation of the people of Leningrad’s brave resistance to the German invaders and an authentic piece of patriotic art at a time when morale needed boosting. The symphony was first premiered by the Bolshoi Theatre orchestra in Kuibyshev and was soon performed abroad in London and the United States. However, the most compelling performance was the Leningrad premiere by the Radio Orchestra in the besieged city. The orchestra had only fourteen musicians left, so the conductor Karl Eliasberg had to recruit anyone who could play a musical instrument to perform the symphony.^[30]

In spring 1943, the family moved to Moscow. At the time of the Eighth Symphony‘s premiere, the tide had turned for the Red Army. Therefore, the public, and most importantly the authorities, wanted another triumphant piece from the composer. Instead, they got the Eighth Symphony, perhaps the ultimate in sombre and violent expression within Shostakovich’s output. In order to preserve the image of Shostakovich (a vital bridge to the people of the Union and to the West), the government assigned the name “Stalingrad” to the symphony, giving it the appearance of a mourning of the dead in the bloody Battle of Stalingrad. However, the symphony did not escape criticism. Shostakovich is reported to have said: “When the Eighth was performed, it was openly declared counter-revolutionary and anti-Soviet. They said, ‘Why did Shostakovich write an optimistic symphony at the beginning of the war and a tragic one now? At the beginning we were retreating and now we’re attacking, destroying the Fascists. And Shostakovich is acting tragic, that means he’s on the side of the fascists.'”^[31] The work was unofficially but effectively banned until 1956.^[32]

The Ninth Symphony (1945), in contrast, was much lighter in tone. Gavriil Popov wrote that it was “splendid in its joie de vivre, gaiety, brilliance, and pungency!!^[33] By 1946, however, it was the subject of criticism. Israel Nestyev asked whether it was the right time for “a light and amusing interlude between Shostakovich’s significant creations, a temporary rejection of great, serious problems for the sake of playful, filigree-trimmed trifles.”^[34] The New York World-Telegram of 27 July 1946 was similarly dismissive: “The Russian composer should not have expressed his feelings about the defeat of Nazism in such a childish manner”. Shostakovich continued to compose chamber music, notably his Second Piano Trio (Op. 67), dedicated to the memory of Sollertinsky, with a bittersweet, Jewish-themed totentanz finale.

Second denunciation

From left to right: Sergei Prokofiev, Shostakovich, Aram Khachaturian, 1945^[35]

In 1948, Shostakovich, along with many other composers, was again denounced for formalism in the Zhdanov decree. Andrei Zhdanov, Chairman of the RSFSR Supreme Soviet, accused Shostakovich and other composers (such as Sergei Prokofiev and Aram Khachaturian) for writing inappropriate and formalist music. This was part of an ongoing anti-formalism campaign intended to root out all Western compositional influence as well as any perceived “non-Russian” output. The conference resulted in the publication of the Central Committee’s Decree “On V. Muradeli’s opera The Great Friendship,” which was targeted towards all Soviet composers and demanded that they only write “proletarian” music, or music for the masses. The accused composers, including Shostakovich, were summoned to make public apologies in front of the committee.^[36][37] Most of Shostakovich’s works were banned, and his family had privileges withdrawn. Yuri Lyubimov says that at this time “he waited for his arrest at night out on the landing by the lift, so that at least his family wouldn’t be disturbed.”^[38]

The consequences of the decree for composers were harsh. Shostakovich was among those who were dismissed from the Conservatoire altogether. For Shostakovich, the loss of money was perhaps the largest blow. Others still in the Conservatory experienced an atmosphere that was thick with suspicion. No one wanted their work to be understood as formalist, so many resorted to accusing their colleagues of writing or performing anti-proletarian music.^[39]

In the next few years, he composed three categories of work: film music to pay the rent, official works aimed at securing official rehabilitation, and serious works “for the desk drawer”. The latter included the Violin Concerto No. 1 and the song cycle From Jewish Folk Poetry. The cycle was written at a time when the post-war anti-Semitic campaign was already under way, with widespread arrests including of I. Dobrushin and Yiditsky, the compilers of the book from which Shostakovich took his texts.^[40]

The restrictions on Shostakovich’s music and living arrangements were eased in 1949, when Stalin decided that the Soviets needed to send artistic representatives to the Cultural and Scientific Congress for World Peace in New York City, and that Shostakovich should be amongst them. For Shostakovich, it was a humiliating experience culminating in a New York press conference where he was expected to read a prepared speech. Nicolas Nabokov, who was present in the audience, witnessed Shostakovich starting to read “in a nervous and shaky voice” before he had to break off “and the speech was continued in English by a suave radio baritone”.^[41] Fully aware that Shostakovich was not free to speak his mind, Nabokov publicly asked the composer whether he supported the then recent denunciation of Stravinsky’s music in the Soviet Union. Shostakovich, who was a great admirer of Stravinsky and had been influenced by his music, had no alternative but to answer in the affirmative. Nabokov did not hesitate to publish that this demonstrated that Shostakovich was “not a free man, but an obedient tool of his government.”^[42] Shostakovich never forgave Nabokov for this public humiliation.^[43] That same year Shostakovich was obliged to compose the cantata Song of the Forests, which praised Stalin as the “great gardener.” In 1951 the composer was made a deputy to the Supreme Soviet of RSFSR.

Stalin’s death in 1953 was the biggest step towards Shostakovich’s rehabilitation as a creative artist, which was marked by his Tenth Symphony. It features a number of musical quotations and codes (notably the DSCH and Elmira motifs, Elmira Nazirova being a pianist and composer who had studied under Shostakovich in the year prior to his dismissal from the Moscow Conservatoire),^[44] the meaning of which is still debated, whilst the savage second movement, according to Testimony, is intended as a musical portrait of Stalin himself. The Symphony ranks alongside the Fifth and Seventh as one of his most popular works. 1953 also saw a stream of premieres of the “desk drawer” works.

During the forties and fifties, Shostakovich had close relationships with two of his pupils: Galina Ustvolskaya and Elmira Nazirova. In the background to all this remained Shostakovich’s first, open marriage to Nina Varzar until her death in 1954. He taught Ustvolskaya from 1937 to 1947. The nature of their relationship is far from clear: Mstislav Rostropovich described it as “tender”. Ustvolskaya rejected a proposal of marriage from him after Nina’s death.^[45] Shostakovich’s daughter, Galina, recalled her father consulting her and Maxim about the possibility of Ustvolskaya becoming their stepmother.^[46] Ustvolskaya’s friend, Viktor Suslin, said that she had been “deeply disappointed” in Shostakovich by the time of her graduation in 1947. The relationship with Nazirova seems to have been one-sided, expressed largely through his letters to her, and can be dated to around 1953 to 1956. He married his second wife, Komsomol activist Margarita Kainova, in 1956; the couple proved ill-matched, and divorced three years later.

In 1954, Shostakovich wrote the Festive Overture, opus 96, that was used as the theme music for the 1980 Summer Olympics.^[47] In addition his ‘”Theme from the film Pirogov, Opus 76a: Finale” was played as the cauldron was lit at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, Greece.

In 1959, Shostakovich appeared on stage in Moscow at the end of a concert performance of his Fifth Symphony, congratulating Leonard Bernstein and the New York Philharmonic Orchestra for their performance (part of a concert tour of the Soviet Union). Later that year, Bernstein and the New York Philharmonic recorded the symphony in Boston for Columbia Records.

Joining the Party

The year 1960 marked another turning point in Shostakovich’s life: he joined the Communist Party. The government wanted to appoint him General Secretary of the Composers’ Union, but in order to hold that position he was required to attain Party membership. It was understood that Nikita Khrushchev, the First Secretary of the Communist Party from 1958 to 1964, was looking for support from the leading ranks of the intelligentsia in an effort to create a better relationship with the Soviet Union’s artists.^[48] This event has been interpreted variously as a show of commitment, a mark of cowardice, the result of political pressure, or as his free decision. On the one hand, the apparat was undoubtedly less repressive than it had been before Stalin’s death. On the other, his son recalled that the event reduced Shostakovich to tears,^[49] and he later told his wife Irina that he had been blackmailed.^[50] Lev Lebedinsky has said that the composer was suicidal.^[51] Once he joined the Party, several articles denouncing individualism in music were published in Pravda under his name, though he did not actually write them. In addition, in joining the party, Shostakovich was also committing himself to finally writing the homage to Lenin that he had promised before. His Twelfth Symphony, which portrays the Bolshevik Revolution and was completed in 1961, was dedicated to Vladimir Lenin and called “The Year 1917.”^[52] Around this time, his health also began to deteriorate.

Shostakovich in 1950

Shostakovich’s musical response to these personal crises was the Eighth String Quartet, composed in only three days. He subtitled the piece, “To the victims of fascism and war”,^[53] ostensibly in memory of the Dresden fire bombing that took place in 1945. Yet, like the Tenth Symphony, this quartet incorporates quotations from several of his past works and his musical monogram: Shostakovich confessed to his friend Isaak Glikman “I started thinking that if some day I die, nobody is likely to write a work in memory of me, so I had better write one myself.”^[54] Several of Shostakovich’s colleagues, including Natalya Vovsi-Mikhoels^[55] and the cellist Valentin Berlinsky,^[56] were also aware of the Eighth Quartet’s biographical intent.

In 1962 he married for the third time, to Irina Supinskaya. In a letter to Glikman, he wrote “her only defect is that she is 27 years old. In all other respects she is splendid: clever, cheerful, straightforward and very likeable.”^[57] According to Galina Vishnevskaya, who knew the Shostakoviches well, this marriage was a very happy one: “It was with her that Dmitri Dmitriyevich finally came to know domestic peace… Surely, she prolonged his life by several years.”^[58] In November he made his only venture into conducting, conducting a couple of his own works in Gorky;^[59] otherwise he declined to conduct, citing nerves and ill health as his reasons.

That year saw Shostakovich again turn to the subject of anti-Semitism in his Thirteenth Symphony (subtitled Babi Yar). The symphony sets a number of poems by Yevgeny Yevtushenko, the first of which commemorates a massacre of Ukrainian Jews during the Second World War. Opinions are divided how great a risk this was: the poem had been published in Soviet media, and was not banned, but it remained controversial. After the symphony’s premiere, Yevtushenko was forced to add a stanza to his poem which said that Russians and Ukrainians had died alongside the Jews at Babi Yar.

In 1965 Shostakovich raised his voice in defense of poet Joseph Brodsky, who was sentenced to five years of exile and hard labor. Shostakovich co-signed protests together with Yevtushenko and fellow Soviet artists Kornei Chukovsky, Anna Akhmatova, Samuil Marshak, and the French philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre. After the protests the sentence was commuted, and Brodsky returned to Leningrad. Shostakovich also joined a group of 25 distinguished intellectuals in signing a letter to Leonid Brezhnev asking not to rehabilitate Stalin.^[60]

• (Russian) Original: “Pismo 25-ti deyatelei kulturi Brezhnevu o tendezii reabilitazii Stalina” [About the tendency toward Stalin’s rehabilitation: The letter to Brezhnev signed by twenty-five intellectuals], Sobranie Documentov Samizdata [Collection of Samizdat Documents, SDS], vol. 4, AC no. 273 (1966)

• (Russian) Online: “Письмо 25 деятелей советской науки, литературы и искусства Л. И. Брежневу против реабилитации И. В. Сталина”. Институт истории естествознания и техники им. С.И. Вавилова РАН. Retrieved 26 February 2013.

Later life

In 1964 Shostakovich composed the music for the Russian film Hamlet, which was favourably reviewed by the New York Times: “But the lack of this aural stimulation – of Shakespeare’s eloquent words – is recompensed in some measure by a splendid and stirring musical score by Dmitri Shostakovich. This has great dignity and depth, and at times an appropriate wildness or becoming levity”.^[61]

In later life, Shostakovich suffered from chronic ill health, but he resisted giving up cigarettes and vodka. Beginning in 1958 he suffered from a debilitating condition that particularly affected his right hand, eventually forcing him to give up piano playing; in 1965 it was diagnosed as poliomyelitis. He also suffered heart attacks the following year and again in 1971, and several falls in which he broke both his legs; in 1967 he wrote in a letter:

“Target achieved so far: 75% (right leg broken, left leg broken, right hand defective). All I need to do now is wreck the left hand and then 100% of my extremities will be out of order.”^[62]

A preoccupation with his own mortality permeates Shostakovich’s later works, among them the later quartets and the Fourteenth Symphony of 1969 (a song cycle based on a number of poems on the theme of death). This piece also finds Shostakovich at his most extreme with musical language, with twelve-tone themes and dense polyphony used throughout. Shostakovich dedicated this score to his close friend Benjamin Britten, who conducted its Western premiere at the 1970 Aldeburgh Festival. The Fifteenth Symphony of 1971 is, by contrast, melodic and retrospective in nature, quoting Wagner, Rossini and the composer’s own Fourth Symphony.

Shostakovich died of lung cancer on 9 August 1975 and after a civic funeral was interred in the Novodevichy Cemetery, Moscow. Even before his death he had been commemorated with the naming of the Shostakovich Peninsula on Alexander Island, Antarctica.

Shostakovich voting in the election of the Council of Administration of Soviet Musicians in Moscow in 1974

He was survived by his third wife, Irina; his daughter, Galina; and his son, Maxim, a pianist and conductor who was the dedicatee and first performer of some of his father’s works. Shostakovich himself left behind several recordings of his own piano works, while other noted interpreters of his music include his friends Emil Gilels, Mstislav Rostropovich, Tatiana Nikolayeva, Maria Yudina, David Oistrakh, and members of the Beethoven Quartet.

His last work was his Viola Sonata, which was first performed on 28 December 1975, four months after his death.

Shostakovich’s musical influence on later composers outside the former Soviet Union has been relatively slight, although Alfred Schnittke took up his eclecticism, and his contrasts between the dynamic and the static, and some of André Previn‘s music shows clear links to Shostakovich’s style of orchestration. His influence can also be seen in some Nordic composers, such as Lars-Erik Larsson.^[63] Many of his Russian contemporaries, and his pupils at the Leningrad Conservatory, however, were strongly influenced by his style (including German Okunev, Boris Tishchenko, whose 5th Symphony of 1978 is dedicated to Shostakovich’s memory, Sergei Slonimsky, and others). Shostakovich’s conservative idiom has grown increasingly popular with audiences both within and beyond Russia, as the avant-garde has declined in influence and debate about his political views has developed.

Music

For a complete list of Shostakovich’s compositions, see List of compositions by Dmitri Shostakovich.

For a thematical selection of works by Shostakovich, see Category:Compositions by Dmitri Shostakovich.

Overview

Shostakovich’s works are broadly tonal and in the Romantic tradition, but with elements of atonality and chromaticism. In some of his later works (e.g., the Twelfth Quartet), he made use of tone rows. His output is dominated by his cycles of symphonies and string quartets, each totaling fifteen works. The symphonies are distributed fairly evenly throughout his career, while the quartets are concentrated towards the latter part. Among the most popular are the Fifth and Seventh Symphonies and the Eighth and Fifteenth Quartets. Other works include the operas Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk, The Nose and the unfinished The Gamblers based on the comedy of Nikolai Gogol; six concertos (two each for piano, violin and cello); two piano trios; and a large quantity of film music.

Shostakovich’s music shows the influence of many of the composers he most admired: Bach in his fugues and passacaglias; Beethoven in the late quartets; Mahler in the symphonies and Berg in his use of musical codes and quotations. Among Russian composers, he particularly admired Modest Mussorgsky, whose operas Boris Godunov and Khovanshchina he re-orchestrated; Mussorgsky’s influence is most prominent in the wintry scenes of Lady Macbeth and the Eleventh Symphony, as well as in his satirical works such as “Rayok“.^[64] Prokofiev‘s influence is most apparent in the earlier piano works, such as the first sonata and first concerto.^[65] The influence of Russian church and folk music is very evident in his works for unaccompanied choir of the 1950s.

Shostakovich’s relationship with Stravinsky was profoundly ambivalent; as he wrote to Glikman, “Stravinsky the composer I worship. Stravinsky the thinker I despise.”^[66] He was particularly enamoured of the Symphony of Psalms, presenting a copy of his own piano version of it to Stravinsky when the latter visited the USSR in 1962. (The meeting of the two composers was not very successful, however; observers commented on Shostakovich’s extreme nervousness and Stravinsky’s “cruelty” to him.)^[67]

Many commentators have noted the disjunction between the experimental works before the 1936 denunciation and the more conservative ones that followed; the composer told Flora Litvinova, “without ‘Party guidance’ … I would have displayed more brilliance, used more sarcasm, I could have revealed my ideas openly instead of having to resort to camouflage.”^[68] Articles published by Shostakovich in 1934 and 1935 cited Berg, Schoenberg, Krenek, Hindemith, “and especially Stravinsky” among his influences.^[69] Key works of the earlier period are the First Symphony, which combined the academicism of the conservatory with his progressive inclinations; The Nose (“The most uncompromisingly modernist of all his stage-works”^[70]); Lady Macbeth. which precipitated the denunciation; and the Fourth Symphony, described in Grove’s Dictionary as “a colossal synthesis of Shostakovich’s musical development to date”.^[71] The Fourth Symphony was also the first in which the influence of Mahler came to the fore, prefiguring the route Shostakovich was to take to secure his rehabilitation, while he himself admitted that the preceding two were his least successful.^[72]

In the years after 1936, Shostakovich’s symphonic works were outwardly musically conservative, regardless of any subversive political content. During this time he turned increasingly to chamber works, a field that permitted the composer to explore different and often darker ideas without inviting external scrutiny.^[73] While his chamber works were largely tonal, they gave Shostakovich an outlet for sombre reflection not welcomed in his more public works. This is most apparent in the late chamber works, which portray what is described in Grove’s Dictionary as a “world of purgatorial numbness”;^[74] in some of these he included the use of tone rows, although he treated these as melodic themes rather than serially. Vocal works are also a prominent feature of his late output, setting texts often concerned with love, death and art.

Jewish themes

Even before the Stalinist anti-Semitic campaigns in the late 1940s and early 1950s, Shostakovich showed an interest in Jewish themes. He was intrigued by Jewish music’s “ability to build a jolly melody on sad intonations”.^[75] Examples of works that included Jewish themes are the Fourth String Quartet (1949), the First Violin Concerto (1948), and the Four Monologues on Pushkin Poems (1952), as well as the Piano Trio in E minor (1944). He was further inspired to write with Jewish themes when he examined Moisei Beregovski’s thesis on the theme of Jewish folk music in 1946.

In 1948, Shostakovich acquired a book of Jewish folk songs, and from this he composed the song cycle From Jewish Poetry. He initially wrote eight songs that were meant to represent the hardships of being Jewish in the Soviet Union. However in order to disguise this, Shostakovich ended up adding three more songs meant to demonstrate the great life Jews had under the Soviet regime. Despite his efforts to hide the real meaning in the work, the Union of Composers refused to approve his music in 1949 under the pressure of the anti-Semitism that gripped the country. From Jewish Poetry could not be performed until after Stalin’s death in March 1953, along with all the other works that were forbidden.^[76]

Posthumous publications

In 2004, the musicologist Olga Digonskaya discovered a trove of Shostakovich manuscripts at the Glinka State Central Museum of Musical Culture, Moscow. In a cardboard file were some “300 pages of musical sketches, pieces and scores” in the hand of Shostakovich. “A composer friend bribed Shostakovich’s housemaid to regularly deliver the contents of Shostakovich’s office waste bin to him, instead of taking it to the garbage. Some of those cast-offs eventually found their way into the Glinka. … The Glinka archive ‘contained a huge number of pieces and compositions which were completely unknown or could be traced quite indirectly,’ Digonskaya said.”^[77]

Among these were Shostakovich’s piano and vocal sketches for a prologue to an opera, Orango (1932). They have been orchestrated by the British composer Gerard McBurney and this work was premiered in December 2011 by the Los Angeles Philharmonic.^{[77][78][79][80][81]}

Criticism

According to Shostakovich scholar Gerard McBurney, opinion is divided on whether his music is “of visionary power and originality, as some maintain, or, as others think, derivative, trashy, empty and second-hand”.^[82] William Walton, his British contemporary, described him as “the greatest composer of the 20th century”.^[83] Musicologist David Fanning concludes in Grove’s Dictionary that, “Amid the conflicting pressures of official requirements, the mass suffering of his fellow countrymen, and his personal ideals of humanitarian and public service, he succeeded in forging a musical language of colossal emotional power.”^[84]

Some modern composers have been critical. Pierre Boulez dismissed Shostakovich’s music as “the second, or even third pressing of Mahler“.^[85] The Romanian composer and Webern disciple Philip Gershkovich called Shostakovich “a hack in a trance”.^[86] A related complaint is that Shostakovich’s style is vulgar and strident: Stravinsky wrote of Lady Macbeth: “brutally hammering … and monotonous”.^[87] English composer and musicologist Robin Holloway described his music as “battleship-grey in melody and harmony, factory-functional in structure; in content all rhetoric and coercion.”^[88]

In the 1980s, the Finnish conductor and composer Esa-Pekka Salonen was critical of Shostakovich and refused to conduct his music. For instance, he said in 1987:

Shostakovich is in many ways a polar counter-force for Stravinsky. […] When I have said that the 7th symphony of Shostakovich is a dull and unpleasant composition, people have responded: “Yes, yes, but think of the background of that symphony.” Such an attitude does no good to anyone.^[89]

However, Salonen has since performed and recorded several of Shostakovich’s works, including the Piano Concertos Nos. 1 and 2 (1999), the Violin Concerto No. 1 (2010), the Prologue to “Orango” and the Symphony No. 4 (2012).

It is certainly true that Shostakovich borrows extensively from the material and styles both of earlier composers and of popular music; the vulgarity of “low” music is a notable influence on this “greatest of eclectics”.^[90] McBurney traces this to the avant-garde artistic circles of the early Soviet period in which Shostakovich moved early in his career, and argues that these borrowings were a deliberate technique to allow him to create “patterns of contrast, repetition, exaggeration” that gave his music the large-scale structure it required.^[91]

Personality

Shostakovich with close friend Ivan Sollertinsky

Shostakovich was in many ways an obsessive man: according to his daughter he was “obsessed with cleanliness”;^[92] he synchronised the clocks in his apartment; he regularly sent cards to himself to test how well the postal service was working. Elizabeth Wilson‘s Shostakovich: A Life Remembered (1994 edition) indexes 26 references to his nervousness. Mikhail Druskin remembers that even as a young man the composer was “fragile and nervously agile”.^[93] Yuri Lyubimov comments, “The fact that he was more vulnerable and receptive than other people was no doubt an important feature of his genius”.^[94] In later life, Krzysztof Meyer recalled, “his face was a bag of tics and grimaces”.^[95]

In his lighter moods, sport was one of his main recreations, although he preferred spectating or umpiring to participating (he was a qualified football referee). His favourite football club was Zenit Leningrad, which he would watch regularly.^[96] He also enjoyed playing card games, particularly patience. He was fond of satirical writers such as Gogol, Chekhov and Mikhail Zoshchenko. The influence of the latter in particular is evident in his letters, which include wry parodies of Soviet officialese. Zoshchenko himself noted the contradictions in the composer’s character: “he is … frail, fragile, withdrawn, an infinitely direct, pure child … [but he is also] hard, acid, extremely intelligent, strong perhaps, despotic and not altogether good-natured (although cerebrally good-natured)”.^[97]

He was diffident by nature: Flora Litvinova has said he was “completely incapable of saying ‘No’ to anybody.”^[98] This meant he was easily persuaded to sign official statements, including a denunciation of Andrei Sakharov in 1973; on the other hand he was willing to try to help constituents in his capacities as chairman of the Composers’ Union and Deputy to the Supreme Soviet. Oleg Prokofiev commented that “he tried to help so many people that … less and less attention was paid to his pleas.”^[99] When asked if he believed in God, Shostakovich said “No, and I am very sorry about it.”^[100]

 

Orthodoxy and revisionism

Shostakovich represented himself in some works with the DSCH motif, consisting of D-E♭-C-B.

Main article: Testimony (book)

Shostakovich’s response to official criticism and, what is more important, the question of whether he used music as a kind of covert dissidence is a matter of dispute. He outwardly conformed to government policies and positions, reading speeches and putting his name to articles expressing the government line.^[101] But it is evident he disliked many aspects of the regime, as confirmed by his family, his letters to Isaak Glikman, and the satirical cantata “Rayok“, which ridiculed the “anti-formalist” campaign and was kept hidden until after his death.^[102] He was a close friend of Marshal of the Soviet Union Mikhail Tukhachevsky, who was executed in 1937 during the Great Purge.

It is also uncertain to what extent Shostakovich expressed his opposition to the state in his music. The revisionist view was put forth by Solomon Volkov in the 1979 book Testimony, which was claimed to be Shostakovich’s memoirs dictated to Volkov. The book alleged that many of the composer’s works contained coded anti-government messages, that would place Shostakovich in a tradition of Russian artists outwitting censorship that goes back at least to the early 19th century poet Alexander Pushkin. It is known that he incorporated many quotations and motifs in his work, most notably his signature DSCH theme.^[103] His longtime collaborator Yevgeny Mravinsky said that “Shostakovich very often explained his intentions with very specific images and connotations.”^[104]

The revisionist perspective has subsequently been supported by his children, Maxim and Galina, and many Russian musicians. Volkov has further argued, both in Testimony and in Shostakovich and Stalin, that Shostakovich adopted the role of the yurodivy or holy fool in his relations with the government. Other prominent revisionists are Ian MacDonald, whose book The New Shostakovich put forward further revisionist interpretations of his music, and Elizabeth Wilson, whose Shostakovich: A Life Remembered provides testimony from many of the composer’s acquaintances.

Musicians and scholars including Laurel Fay^[105] and Richard Taruskin contest the authenticity and debate the significance of Testimony, alleging that Volkov compiled it from a combination of recycled articles, gossip, and possibly some information direct from the composer. Fay documents these allegations in her 2002 article ‘Volkov’s Testimony reconsidered’,^[106] showing that the only pages of the original Testimony manuscript that Shostakovich had signed and verified are word-for-word reproductions of earlier interviews given by the composer, none of which are controversial. (Against this, it has been pointed out by Allan B. Ho and Dmitry Feofanov that at least two of the signed pages contain controversial material: for instance, “on the first page of chapter 3, where [Shostakovich] notes that the plaque that reads ‘In this house lived [Vsevolod] Meyerhold‘ should also say ‘And in this house his wife was brutally murdered’.”)^[107]

Recorded legacy

A Russian stamp in Shostakovich’s memory

In May 1958, during a visit to Paris, Shostakovich recorded his two piano concertos with André Cluytens, as well as some short piano works. These were issued by EMI on an LP, reissued by Seraphim Records on LP, and eventually digitally remastered and released on CD. Shostakovich recorded the two concertos in stereo in Moscow for Melodiya. Shostakovich also played the piano solos in recordings of the Cello Sonata, Op. 40 with cellist Daniil Shafran and also with Mstislav Rostropovich; the Violin Sonata, Op. 134, with violinist David Oistrakh; and the Piano Trio, Op. 67 with violinist David Oistrakh and cellist Miloš Sádlo. There is also a short sound film of Shostakovich as soloist in a 1930s concert performance of the closing moments of his first piano concerto. A colour film of Shostakovich supervising one of his operas, from his last year, was also made.^[108] A major achievement was the recording of the original, unexpurgated score for Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk by EMI. There was at least one recording of the cleaned up version, Katerina Ismailova that Shostakovich had made to satisfy Soviet censorship. But when conductor Mstislav Rostropovich and his wife, soprano Galina Vishnevskaya were finally allowed to emigrate to the West, the composer begged them to record the full original score, which they did in 1979. It features Vishnevskaya as Katerina, Nicolai Gedda as Sergei, Dimiter Petkov as Boris Ismailov and a brilliant supporting cast under Rostropovich’s direction.

Awards

Soviet Union

• Hero of Socialist Labor (1966)
• Order of Lenin (1946, 1956, 1966)
• Order of the October Revolution (1971)
• Order of the Red Banner of Labour (1940)
• Order of Friendship of Peoples (1972)
• People’s Artist of the USSR (1954)
• People’s Artist of the RSFSR (1948)
• International Peace Prize (1954)
• Lenin Prize (1958 – for the 11th symphony “1905”)
• Stalin Prize in arts (1941 – 1st class, for Piano Quintet; 1942 – 1st class, for the 7th (“Leningrad”) Symphony; 1946 – 2nd class, for Trio; 1950 – 1st class, for the music for the film Encounter at the Elbe; 1952 – 2nd class, for 10 poems for chorus)
• USSR State Prize (1968 – for the poem “The Execution of Stepan Razin” for bass, chorus and orchestra)
• Glinka State Prize of the RSFSR (1974 – for the 14th string quartet and choral cycle “Fidelity”)
• National Prize of Ukraine Taras Shevchenko (posthumously, 1976 – USSR State Prize named after Taras Shevchenko – for the opera “Katerina Ismailov,” staged in KUGATOB Shevchenko)

United Kingdom

• Gold Medal of the Royal Philharmonic Society (1966)

Finland

• Sibelius Award (1958)

United States

• Oscar nomination for Khovanshchina, Best Score (Musical) in 1961

Austria

• Decoration for Services to the Republic of Austria in Silver (1967)

Denmark

• Léonie Sonning Music Prize (1974)

 

 

historic musical bits: SHOSTAKOVICH Piano Trio No.2 | E.Gilels, L.Kogan, M.Rostropovich | 1959

SHOSTAKOVICH Piano Trio No.2 | E.Gilels, L.Kogan, M.Rostropovich | 1959

Emilio Pessina

Uploaded on Feb 11, 2012

Dmitri SHOSTAKOVICH: Piano Trio No.2 in E minor, Op.67 (1944)
0:10 / I. Andante — |3:06| Moderato — |5:02| Poco più mosso [7’37”]
7:47 / II. Allegro con brio [2’40”]
10:28 / III. Largo [4’42”]
15:11 / IV. Allegretto — |23:50| Adagio [9’43”]
Emil Gilels, piano
Leonid Kogan, violin
Mstislav Rostropovich, cello
(rec: London, 28 February 1959)
5CDs: Doremi DHR-7921-5 – ℗2007

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