I have listened to Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 1 and his Symphony No. 5 for many, many years, and I have always enjoyed them. His Symphony No. 5 even made it on to my “Top 100” list, HERE. I don’t know why I’ve never really explored any of his other symphonies. That’s why I decided to pick one them to listen to this week.
I ran some sort of Google search on Shostakovich’s symphonies, and I found this article from WQXR, a classical music radio station out of New York City, “Dmitri Shostakovich Wrote 15 Symphonies. We Ranked Them All,” (HERE). His Symphony No. 1 landed in the 10th spot on the list, and his Symphony No. 5 topped the list which did not surprise me. His Symphony No. 10 came just below the Fifth, so that’s how I landed on this piece to explore this week. Here’s what Max Fine, the writer for the WQXR editorial, said about this symphony: “Shostakovich’s Tenth Symphony is one of the composer’s supreme and mysterious achievements. After a massive first movement and a frenetic second, Shostakovich introduces two important musical motifs in the third movement, each spelling out a name with musical notation: his own initials, and the name of a student. In the finale, he ties the previous movements together with themes from the rest of the work, bringing the symphony to a devastating conclusion.” The symphony has four movements and a duration of approximately 50 minutes. The first movement is indeed “massive,” both in tone and length (about 22 minutes), and it is marked Moderato. The other three movements are Allegro; Allegretto – Largo – Più mosso; and Andante – Allegro – L’istesso tempo. I don’t know what was going on in Shostakovich’s life when he wrote this piece, but I suspect he was struggling with something. Most of this work is dark, somber, and ominous. I had an eerie experience with it when I first listened. I popped my earbuds in, started up the first movement, and began reading through Twitter as I listened. The opening measures with grim and gloomy low strings were very foreboding as I was reading tweets about the dismal state of affairs with recent SCOTUS rulings, the attempted coup by a treasonous past so-called “president,” and GOP actions to destroy free expression and American values. As the music began to swell, I was reading about the inJustices on the Supreme Court who were appointed by a criminal who lost the popular vote; how they had lied under oath; how two on the bench have been credibly accused of sexual assault – and how the treasonous criminal in the White House himself had employed a “Fixer” to pay hush money to pay off prostitutes and fund sescret abortions. I read about a Supreme Court inJustice’s wife who has been implicated in the failed coup attempt – and the music kept swelling and swelling and making me angrier and angrier. Shostakovich’s music captured my mood completely. I wanted to pound on the desk and yell from the rooftop! STOP THE MADNESS!!! LOL. I had to stop the music and take a breath! I listened again later, but this time I did not do so while I read about the treasonous former “president” or the GOP tactics to destroy American freedoms and liberties and their attacks on women, LGBTQ+ individuals and people of color. I just listened to the music – and though I could not help to think about the sad state affairs our country is in as the RepubliQan party attempts to seize power and turn us into an autocratic state based on a national religion rooted in hatred and fear – I tried to keep my mind clear as I listened to the tale being told by Shostakovich. The second movement reminded me very much of another work by Shostakovich – his Festive Overture (also on my “Top 100” list) – but a dark and sinister version of that piece. It has a lot of the same orchestrations, rhythms, motifs – and the same tempo. Instead of a “festive” overture, though, the second movement of this symphony is like a “frenetic” overture. I loved it! The two pieces were so similar (though one is dark and furious and the other is light and effervescent), I checked to see when both were composed: Shostakovich wrote his tenth symphony at some point between 1951 and 1953 (with sketches for some of the material dating back to 1946), and in 1954 he composed his “Festive Overture,” commissioned for the Bolshoi Theatre's celebration of the 37th anniversary of Russia’s October Revolution. The third movement is a less intense piece, a nocturne that is much more reserved though edgy at times. This piece has an interesting story too as it was composed around two musical codes, the DSCH theme representing Shostakovich, and the Elmira theme representing Elmira Nazirova, a student of the composer with whom he fell in love. You can read more about all of this HERE. The fourth and final movement starts out slowly but segues into an "Allegro" section wherein the DSCH theme is employed again. Shostakovich then masterfully blends all of the qualities of the symphony – the ominous strings, the frenetic rhythms, the dark moods tempered with other reserved sections – and it all comes together in a spirited coda that shifts to major key and an exuberant ending. I loved it! I just didn't love what I was reading about while I listened to this masterful work. : )
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’ve always heard of “The Threepenny Opera,” and of course, I am familiar with its one hit, “Mack the Knife.” However, I know nothing about the work – other than that the music is by Kurt Weill – and I’ve never heard the soundtrack or seen the show.
I had a theory about the show’s lack of popularity (or should I say “exposure”? “longevity”?), although I’ve now changed my tune on that (pun intended). I thought, perhaps, that “The Threepenny Opera” was not in demand, so to speak, because it had the word “opera” in the title – and that the show’s moniker worked against it. LIke “Urinetown.” I know folks who have refused to see “Urinetown” all because of the show’s name, but it’s a very ingenious, mischievous show with catchy tunes, clever lyrics, crowd-pleasing dance numbers, and a provocative message. “The Threepenny Opera” has little (none?) of that. Hence, perhaps the show’s name has worked against it, but maybe its lack of staying power is due more to its banality than its title. I found it interesting to read up on the show’s history (HERE), and I also read up a bit on Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill (I never realized that “September Song” was by Weill). However, I could barely make it through “The Threepenny Opera” twice. As a matter of fact, I didn’t. I listened to the soundtrack on Spotify early in the week, and then mid-week I tried watching a production of the show on YouTube. I stopped half-way through, with the intention of finishing it, but then I thought “Why? Why waste my time?” The show is dull. The music is uninspiring, forgettable, and dull. Oh, there are some interesting bits of orchestration now and then, but the show is just wearisome and dull. Did I say it was dull? Anyway, that’s my two cents on “The Threepenny Opera.”
Recently I listened to and commented on an unfamiliar piece by Beethoven (HERE) and one by Brahms (HERE), so to finish out the “three Bs,” I thought I’d listen to a piece this week by Bach.
My first thought was, “I wonder if Bach wrote a Toccata and Fugue in D Major since he has such a famous work in D Minor.” My second thought was, “What is a ‘Toccata’ anyway?” To answer my second question first, “toccata” (from Italian toccare, “to touch”) is a virtuoso piece of music typically written for a keyboard, and it is composed to exhibit the performer’s “touch” or technique. To answer my first question, no – I could not find a Toccata and Fugue in D Major by Bach. However, much to my surprise, I did find a second Toccata and Fugue in D Minor by Bach, known as “Dorian,” HERE. And though I did not find a Toccata and Fugue in D Major, I did find a Prelude and Fugue in D Major. That was close enough for me, so I listened to this composition this week. Of course, Bach composed some very famous and familiar melodies (like “Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring,” “Sleepers Awake,” the Brandenburg Concertos, and so many more), but the Prelude and Fugue in D Major is not one of them. Oh, it’s a pleasant enough piece, the sort of music one might hear while sitting in a pew waiting for a church service to begin -- though probably not while waiting for a funeral service as the piece, written in a major key, is not somber enough. I did enjoy this Prelude and Fugue, though I don’t think it’s a piece I’ll revisit any time soon. However, while Bach’s work earned BLUE in my rating scale, the performance by Monica Czausz merited my top rating, GREEN. That footwork was incredible! I suspect she’d have no trouble at all learning to drive a stick shift car!
I attended a high school orchestra concert recently – the group’s final concert of the year – and the teacher allowed seniors to select pieces they particularly enjoyed playing over the years to be part of the program. One student chose an abridged version of Tchaikovsky’s “Serenade for Strings,” a beautiful piece to be sure.
That made me wonder if other composers wrote “serenades” for strings, so I ran a Google search. Of course, Tchaikovsky’s work topped the list in the results of my search, but the second piece mentioned was Antonín Dvořák's Serenade for Strings in E Major so I picked that as the piece I would listen to this week. Perhaps I have heard this work before – most likely on the radio – as some of it did sound a bit familiar, and it is a decent piece. I did like it, but I can’t say that I did love it. Dvořák's Serenade is in five movements:
It is a pleasant enough piece, and descriptions for each of the movements can be found HERE. However, it really didn’t capture my attention or my desire to hear it again (last week, when I listened to Philip Glass’ Violin Concerto, I kept listening to that final movement over and over again). Dvořák's piece has some drama, but not like the emotion and force of the opening movement of Tchaikovsky’s Serenade. It has joy, but not like the jubilant strings of Mendelssohn’s Symphony No. 4. It has melancholy, but not like the Adagio by Samuel Barber. Dvořák's serenade is just – pleasant. A likable piece to listen to, but just a bit too “meh” for my taste. |
A New Hope:As the header above says, each week I will listen to a piece of classical music that I've never heard before, and then I will report out what I thought about it. Archives
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