Classic Ross Amico

Tag: Dmitri Shostakovich

Shostakovich Plays Shostakovich

As I mentioned last week, Dmitri Shostakovich was a fabulous pianist, who began serious studies at the age of 9. He continued, formally, at the Petrograd Conservatory, upon his acceptance there, at the age of 13. Once he began to receive international attention for his original compositions, for works such as his Symphony No. 1, written when he was only 19, his principal focus began to shift. He did, however, continue to perform and record his own music.

This Sunday night on “The Lost Chord,” we’ll revisit a 5-CD set, “Shostakovich Plays Shostakovich,” issued on the Melodiya label, made up of Russian state recordings set down largely between 1946 and 1958, with the composer himself at the piano.

The documents in this box are riveting, not only for the musicianship they document, but also because of their biographical fascination and their sense of history.

By way of example, we’ll hear a harrowing account of the Piano Trio No. 2 in E minor. Given its premiere only months after the liberation of Leningrad, the trio predates Shostakovich’s String Quartet No. 8. Both share in common a kind of inexorable, klezmer-inflected danse macabre. Shostakovich always felt a special kinship with the Jewish people. Furthermore, the trio is dedicated to his friend, Ivan Sollertinsky, artistic director of the Leningrad Philharmonic, who was an enthusiast of the music of Gustav Mahler. Sollertinsky died of a heart attack in Siberia, following his evacuation during the Siege of Leningrad.

In 1947, Shostakovich sat down in front of the microphones to record the work, with violinist David Oistrakh and cellist Miloš Sádlo.

On a lighter note, “Children’s Notebook” is a collection of trifles (March, Waltz, Sad Tale, Merry Tale, The Bear, The Clockwork Doll, and Birthday). However, they certainly take on added interest when introduced by the composer, as they will be tonight.

The hour will open with the Concertino for Two Pianos – performed by Shostakovich and his son, Maxim – and conclude with the Piano Concerto No. 2, written for Maxim’s 19th birthday. Maxim introduced the concerto at his graduation from the Moscow Conservatory. Here, Shostakovich himself performs at the conservatory’s Grand Hall, at fever pitch, with the Moscow Radio Symphony conducted by Alexander Gauk.

In America, artists play with authority. In Soviet Russia, authorities play with you!

Shostakovich gets all keyed up, on “Black and White and Red Redux,” four more recordings with the composer at the keyboard, this Sunday night at 10:00 EST, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.

In case you missed it, here’s a link to Part One, “Black and White and Red All Over,” posted as a webcast:

https://www.wwfm.org/webcasts/2020-01-30/the-lost-chord-february-2-black-and-white-and-red-all-over

January 29, 2023
Shostakovich Plays Shostakovich: A Lost Chord

Of the great composers, none enjoyed football more than Dmitri Shostakovich. Russian football, that is. On one occasion he even invited the entire Leningrad Dynamo over to his apartment for dinner.

This Sunday night on “The Lost Chord,” coinciding with the NFL playoffs, we’ll hear selections from a 5-CD boxed set, on the Melodiya label, of Russian state recordings of Shostakovich performing his own music.

Admittedly, emphasizing Shostakovich’s rabid enthusiasm for football is something of a bait-and-switch. The show has nothing at all to do with the sport. However, Shostakovich really did love football (i.e. soccer) and all kinds of sports and games of chance.

Concerning the show itself, Shostakovich was a fabulous pianist, who, early on, eked out a living with his improvisations at a local cinema. He began serious studies at the age of 9, and continued, formally, at the Petrograd Conservatory, upon his acceptance there, at the age of 13. Once he began to receive international attention for his original compositions, for works such as his Symphony No. 1, written when he was only 19, his principal focus began to shift. He did, however, continue to perform and record his own music.

The documents in this Melodiya set, “Shostakovich Plays Shostakovich,” are riveting, not only for the musicianship they enshrine, but also on account of their biographical fascination and their sense of history.

Perhaps no Shostakovich recording is imbued with a greater sense of time and place than a 1954 performance of his Symphony No. 10. An arrangement, for piano four-hands, was played by the composer at his apartment with his close friend and neighbor Mieczyslaw Weinberg.

Weinberg found himself in a very precarious situation only the year before. He was arrested on a charge of “Jewish bourgeois nationalism,” in connection with the so-called Doctor’s Plot, at the command of Stalin himself, on the pretense that Jewish doctors were planning to assassinate Soviet officials. Weinberg’s father-in-law had been implicated, and killed. Shostakovich attempted to intercede on his friend’s behalf, but it was only with the sudden and fortuitous death of Stalin in 1953 that Weinberg was officially rehabilitated, and released.

In a piece of living history, these two artists sit down to perform on Shostakovich’s home piano. This is music that was claimed, in Solomon Volkov’s “Testimony,” Shostakovich’s alleged memoir, to be about Stalin and the Stalin years.

The pianos used in some of these recordings may be a little rough around the edges, but they only lend to the neurotic intensity of the music-making. It’s also a kind of window into what it must have been like to have been a musician in Soviet Russia, between 1946 and 1958, commandeering whatever means of expression you could lay your hands on.

I hope you’ll join me for “Black and White and Red All Over.” Shostakovich tickles the keys, this Sunday night at 10:00 EST, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.

PHOTO: Shostakovich (lower right), with fellow Soviet football fans

January 22, 2023
Kabalevsky F Troop and Soviet Music Anniversaries

The guy who taught me basic music theory was a nut for Dmitri Kabalevsky (1904-1987). In particular, he was crazy for Kabalevsky’s piano sonatas. It was a rare instance in which he introduced me to something I hadn’t heard (I would have been 19 at the time), as opposed to the other way around. That’s the thing about musicians. They’re so busy performing that they have no time to laze around and listen to records!

In any case, of course I knew Kabalevsky from his “Colas Breugnon Overture” (from his opera after the novel of Romain Rolland) and the ubiquitous Galop from “The Comedians,” which I believe I first heard on Bob McAllister’s “Wonderama,” if you remember that show.

Am I the only one who detects Kabalevsky in the theme to “F Troop?”

“The Comedians: Galop”

“Colas Breugnon Overture”

“F Troop”

Interesting choice, to allude to a Soviet composer in a sitcom about the Wild West. Happy birthday, Dmitri Kabalevsky!

Vladimir Horowitz plays Kabalevsky’s Piano Sonata No. 3

It’s quite a day for the Soviets. This date also marks the anniversaries of the first performances of Aram Khachaturian’s Symphony No. 2, in Moscow, in 1943, Dmitri Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 4, also in Moscow, in 1961 (the work was originally scheduled to be performed in 1936, but was prudently withdrawn by the composer after he was denounced in Pravda for his “formalist” opera “Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk”), and – one hundred years ago today – Sergei Prokofiev’s opera “The Love for Three Oranges,” in Chicago, of all places, with the composer in attendance.

Finally, according to the Julian calendar, Reinhold Glière was born on this date in 1875!

TOP PHOTO: Kabalevsky with Shostakovich (left) and cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin at the Kremlin, 1966

BOTTOM PHOTO: Union of Soviet Composers plenum in Moscow, 1946

Standing (left to right): Yuri Shaporin, Dmitri Kabalevsky, Ivan Dzerhinsky, Maran Koval, Vano Muradelli

Sitting (also left to right): Aram Khachaturian, Uzeyir Hajibeyli, Dmitri Shostakovich, Reinhold Glière, Sergei Prokofiev

December 30, 2021
Time Magazine’s Composer Covers

Due to my hectic weekend in Ticonderoga, I was unable to honor Dmitri Shostakovich and George Gershwin on their birthdays. It did occur to me that both were featured on the cover of Time Magazine, which gave me the idea to compile ten Time covers of famous composers (which I am only just getting around to posting). Happy belated birthdays, boys!

Shostakovich, born September 25, 1906 (died August 9, 1975)
Gershwin, born September 26, 1898 (died July 11, 1937)

Interestingly, both appeared on the cover on July 20, seventeen years apart!

It’s sobering to be reminded of a time when classical music was still accepted as a part of our broader culture. I wonder who the last living composer was to be featured on the cover of Time?

Andrew Lloyd Webber got a cover in 1988. No John Williams?

Clockwise from left: Gershwin (July 20, 1925), Shostakovich (July 20, 1942), Richard Strauss (January 24, 1927), and Richard Strauss (July 25, 1938). More in the gallery.

September 29, 2021
Soviet Cinema’s Musical Masterpieces

This week on “Picture Perfect,” peek behind the Curtain for music by notable composers for Soviet cinema.

Alfred Schnittke, a name usually associated with the avant-garde, actually composed over 60 film scores. One of these was for “Agony” (1974), about Rasputin, his influence over the Tsar, and the conspiracy to murder him.

Georgy Sviridov, a pupil of Shostakovich, wrote the music for “Time, Forward!” (1962), based on the novel of Valentin Kataev. Set in the 1930s, the film describes a day of construction work at the Magnitogorsk Iron and Steel Works. Some of the music was used during the opening ceremonies of the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi.

Dmitri Shostakovich, of course, is celebrated for his symphonies and string quartets, which are regarded as some of the most important of the 20th century. He also happened to write some 30 film scores, beginning all the way back in the silent era. Far and away his greatest hit composed for film, at least in the West, is the Romance from “The Gadfly” (1955), based on the novel of Ethel Lillian Voynich. The music gained broader exposure as the theme to “Reilly, Ace of Spies.”

Sergei Eisenstein’s “Alexander Nevsky” (1938) invariably turns up on lists of the greatest films ever made. Nevsky, the 13th century Russian prince, military leader, and saint, thwarts the attempted invasion of Novgorod by Teutonic Knights of the Holy Roman Empire.

Sergei Prokofiev arranged his masterful score into a concert piece, a cantata. However, these days, orchestras seem to be performing it more and more often as it was originally heard, with the film. The synthesis of music and visuals for the climactic Battle on the Ice is one of its indelible highlights.

Say “da” to classic music for Soviet cinema, on “Picture Perfect,” music for the movies, this Saturday evening at 6:00 EST, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.

January 9, 2021

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