YIKES -- where did the time go? I had a busy week last week, and then this week (7/10 - 16) I'll be traveling to New York City -- and I haven't posted my comments on Shostakovich's piano concerto yet. I'm going to try to get my comments and rating up today -- and just FYI: I will not have a new selection to listen to this week since I will be busy doing Big Apple-y things! Sorry for the delay! YAY -- I had time to compose my comments:
I had such a great time listening to Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 10 last week, I thought I’d choose something else from his repertoire this week. I landed on his Piano Concerto No. 1. Shostakovich wrote six concertos, two for the violin, two for the cello and two for the piano. A list of all of Shostakovich’s works is HERE. Written in 1933, the concerto comprises either three or four movements, depending on the interpretation:
After listening to the piece a few times, I also learned that, “Despite the title, the work might be classified as a double concerto rather than a piano concerto, in which the trumpet and piano command equal prominence. The trumpet parts frequently take the form of sardonic interjections, leavening the humor and wit of the piano passage work. The trumpet does assume relatively equal importance during the conclusion of the last movement, immediately after the cadenza for piano solo.” That information is from an article on Wikipedia, HERE. The concerto begins with a brisk intro by the piano accented by a muted trumpet that happens so quickly, it’s amazing the two musicians can coordinate their work. The piano then introduces the first of several mysterious and haunting melodies that weave in and out of the movement between the piano and the orchestra. For the most part, the tempo maintains a fast clip, and the tone is playful and at times smart-alecky. Portions of the first movement as well as sections of the other movements had the pianist racing around the keys so rapidly I wondered if Shostakovich played the piano himself. Had he written such a demanding piece because he knew what he (and other pianists) were capable of – or had he composed such breakneck runs because he just figured pianists worth their salt could somehow achieve what he envisioned? I Googled searched, “Was Shostakovich a pianist?” and information that surfaced said, “Dmitri Shostakovich was a Sovier-er Russian composed and pianist,” so he definitely knew what he was doing. The second movement, marked “Lento,” does, of course, slow things down, but the melodies are just as haunting and at times taunting. The third movement provides a bit more of a respite from the rush of most of the concerto, but not for long. After about a minute and a half, the piano, the orchestra and the trumpet take off at lightning speed in the final movement. An impish trumpet solo early in the movement provides the pianist a bit of a breather, but soon the concerto takes off again. I am not kidding when I say this piece moves at breakneck speed, and how the players coordinate it all is incredible. Commentors on the YouTube performance of this concerto linked above said, “I never cease to be impressed by trumpet players at the climax of this piece,” “That trumpet playing is ridiculously good. How do you even play a fanfare like that so clean and fast without even using any valve changes?” and “Absolutely amazing!!!!! Breathtaking performance and piece.” AND -- if you have time to listen to the work and watch the video linked above -- wait till you see what happens at the end! : ) I loved Shostakovich's Piano Concerto No. 1.
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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. : ) |
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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