Favorite Shostakovich Symphony

[Mojo workin']

Which of Dmitri Shostakovich's symphonies is your favorite? Why?

[GC]

The 4th, because of its size, scope, and audacity. It was pulled from its scheduled premiere because Stalin put Shostakovich on his sh*t list over his dislike of his opera Lady MacBeth of Minsk. It was finally premiered decades later.

The 5th is almost a tie, though.

[Ace]

I love those symphonies. Played the First on tuba, and the Fifth and Ninth on bass trombone.
Quite a workout.

[Tubaguyry]

Five. Because it's the greatest symphony ever written.

[tubafatness]

I love the 8th symphony, (I mean, seriously, who doesn't like the machine motive in the third movement?)

Here's a good recording, although as a warning, don't watch it if you are prone to seizures...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FBKHT5eBIIY

I also really like the 14th symphony, which is a piece for small orchestra with soprano and bass vocalists. The text for the piece contains some pretty hair-rising lines.

Here's the first movement.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JYnv3a0bdOs

[Wyvern]

I like them all but, but favourite I have played to date is the 12th - really dramatic and fantastic tuba part

For best recording (I have heard) Oleg Caetanti with Orchestra Sinfornica di Milano Giuseppe Verdi. A massive tuba tone on that recording.

[Steve Marcus]

Of the 15, there are very few that don't have a substantial tuba part. Thank you, Dmitri and Sergei.

[tclements]

I guess the 5th, but the 9th has a lot to get into also.

[ZNC Dandy]

The 11th for me. The Massacre Sequence in the 2nd movement is one of the most frightening things i've ever heard. Also love the 8th, and the 12th. Kinda sick of hearing the 5th.

[THE TUBA]

I really like 7. The climax of the Invasion Theme might just be my all-time favorite Shostakovich moment.

[Chuck Jackson]

I have to go with the 9th for the sheer ballsiness of Shostakovich. What was supposed to be, or Stalin hoped it would be, a celebratory work at the end of WWII, ends up being a snide commentary on the class system of the USSR itself, kind of an "anti-celebration" if you will. The inclusion of the recitative from Beethovens 9th as a bassoon solo is wry commentary on the imbecility of celebrating a war that saw 20-30 MILLION Russians die.

I have to go with the Bernstein/NYPO recording on this one. The orchestra plays with a brashness that conveys all of Shostakovich's angst. Joe Novotny and friends lay down one of the most terrifying portrayals of Stalin, vis-a-vis the opening of the 4th movement, EVER. One of my Top-20 recordings of the 20th Century.

Chuck"who just popped it in the CD player and is amazed at the wall of sound the NYPO low brass are laying down"Jackson

[jeopardymaster]

13 (Babi Yar). Marvelous treatment of text and thematic content. I just wish the 4th movement were as strong as the rest of it.

[mammoth2ba]

Not sure I could name a single "favorite", but fans of Shostakovich 11 can "do themselves a favor", listening to the hybrid SACD live recording by Orchestra Sinfonica Di Milano Giuseppe Verdi led by Oleg Caetani (son of Igor Markevitch).

The bells in the finale quite frankly put all other recorded versions "in the shade".......I'd like to know how that was accomplished "live".

I have to agree with Frank Pandel's Amazon review which states in part:
"In my opinion this live recording is "beyond comparison" to other touted renditions."

Album can be downloaded (.mp3) for $8.99:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000QZ ... 308&sr=8-5" target="_blank" target="_blank" target="_blank

or just buy the CD:
http://www.amazon.com/Shostakovich-Symp ... 308&sr=8-6" target="_blank" target="_blank" target="_blank

My favorite recording of the 4th remains Kondrashin's with the Moscow Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra (1966) on Melodiya;

Mravinsky and Leningrad Philharmonic's live recording of Shostakovich 5, made May 26, 1973 at Tokyo Bunka kaikan (Altus) has to be the "last word" on expressive intent of the concluding bars of the symphony (Sanderling leading Berlin Symphony Orchestra may place second in that regard), and Mravinsky/Leningrad benefit from excellent stereo sound;

Mravinsky and LPO again in Shostakovich 8 recorded live in Leningrad (1982) and remastered for Regis Records Ltd still commands a favorite position in my collection of "8ths"; and lastly,

Bernstein's recording with Chicago Symphony of Shostakovich 7 still commands attention among recordings of the 7th, and was reissued at _half-price_ in 2008 on 2-CD's, still coupled with Shostakovich 1. Great vintage Jacobs playing. One wonders how anybody had breath left to achieve the amazing final crescendo in the 7th!

[Steve Marcus]

Bernstein's recording with Chicago Symphony of Shostakovich 7 still commands attention among recordings of the 7th, and was reissued at _half-price_ in 2008 on 2-CD's, still coupled with Shostakovich 1. Great vintage Jacobs playing. One wonders how anybody had breath left to achieve the amazing final crescendo in the 7th!

I believe the answer is that Rex Martin assisted on that recording. Brian Fredericksen can confirm or correct.

[mammoth2ba]

One wonders how anybody had breath left to achieve the amazing final crescendo in the 7th!

I believe the answer is that Rex Martin assisted on that recording. Brian Fredericksen can confirm or correct.

Rex or no Rex, my reference to "anybody" was meant to include _all_ the wind players......not exclusive to tuba.

Appendix A: Arnold Jacobs Discography, Song and Wind, Page 206 does credit Mr. Martin in the 1988 recording of Shostakovich 7 for "Sub Tuba (Portions)".

[Steve Marcus]

One wonders how anybody had breath left to achieve the amazing final crescendo in the 7th!...my reference to "anybody" was meant to include _all_ the wind players......not exclusive to tuba.

Good observation. Sometimes, some of us (such as yours truly) whose thoughts sway more than frequently toward the tuba can become rather parochial in our viewpoints toward our other wind instrument colleagues in the orchestra.

[KevinMadden]

One wonders how anybody had breath left to achieve the amazing final crescendo in the 7th!

I believe the answer is that Rex Martin assisted on that recording. Brian Fredericksen can confirm or correct.

Rex or no Rex, my reference to "anybody" was meant to include _all_ the wind players......not exclusive to tuba.

Appendix A: Arnold Jacobs Discography, Song and Wind, Page 206 does credit Mr. Martin in the 1988 recording of Shostakovich 7 for "Sub Tuba (Portions)".

agreed, 7 is BA. and that CSO recording is out of this world. I picked up a recording by the Leningrad Philharmonic playing it from my local library not too long ago, and man is that an impressively emotional performance as well

[Mitch]

Shostakovich is a composer for whom, IMHO, you simply cannot separate the man from his music. This is a man who slept with a packed suitcase under his bed. Not so he could slip away when the wife and kids were sleeping, mind you, but so that when they came for him, and to him it was only a matter of time but they WERE coming for him, he could go along quietly, rather than have the last memory his wife and children had of him be an image of being dragged away kicking and screaming by the men in dark coats and hats. According to some sources, Stalin recognized the popularity of Shostakovich with the Russian people and knew that no matter the offense, Shostakovich should not be touched. He could be chastised, he could be shut out, but his "disappearance" would not be overlooked. Shostakovich did not know this, and that makes so many of his actions that much more courageous. He had a defender in Gen. Tukhachevsky, who wound up being among the military leadership rounded up, "tried" and summarily executed after the Nazis floated rumors of an impending coup. Tukhachevsky had told Shostakovich he would stand in his corner. To Shostakovich, his protector was gone. The bravery exhibited in the composition of the 9th is astounding. According to his son, Maxim, there are musical gestures in the piece that are Dmitri's (put your thumb on your nose, wiggle your fingers and blow a raspberry) to Stalin, in lieu of the grand apotheosis Stalin expected.

Regarding the 7th, he was once asked about whether the piece was about the Russian victory, the strength of the Russian people in surviving, overcoming the siege of Leningrad. He replied, "No. It is about the fact that we never lost." There's a subtlety there that epitomizes so much of his thinking. Stalin would talk about how great life in Russia was. Shostakovich was known to make a toast before drinking; "Here's to life not getting any better."

The third movement of the 5th is a tombstone for so many friends and acquaintances and Russians in general who disappeared in the middle of the night, never to be seen again. At the premiere, people openly wept; they knew, without program notes, without a pre-concert lecture, they knew.

But 10 is awesome. The second movement...dang. It is a scream, raging against the Stalin machine, the letting-off of fear, of hatred, of anxiety, out from under Stalin's thumb. One source puts the possible date of composition as early as 1951, though officially it's 1953; perhaps he sketched it out earlier, looking forward to the day Stalin was dead. I was once at a performance of the piece that was just plain guts-on-the-table all out. The audience was so captivated, so caught up, that after the movement finished, there was dead silence for about 3 seconds, then you could hear hundreds of people exhale, or perhaps more accurately, start breathing again, and so many, if not all, of the seats creaking as people sat back in their seats after having been at the edge.

To me, Shostakovich symphonies have to be played for the meaning, the guts...screw the notes. It's not about the f# in the english horn being perfectly aligned, on the beat, and perfectly in tune with the f# in the french horn. It's about the raw emotion.

According to Maxim, Shostakovich wrote the 8th string quartet in a mad fury of 3 days. He went into his studio, the children were told not to disturb him, his wife took food in - some of which he ate, and after 3 days, Maxim said the door flew open, his father looked like he hadn't slept, was drenched in sweat, was clutching the music in his hand, and said, "This is for me."

Shostakovich just rocks. Period. I could go on and on.

[MichaelDenney]

And in the midst of all the titanic emotion he could still have the bass trombone get "lost" and get away with it.