What the papers said: I have witnessed some enthusiastic responses to Shostakovich's Tenth Symphony, but nothing quite on the scale that greeted the Simón Bolívar Youth Orchestra of Venezuela ... Part of this rapture was directed at Gustavo Dudamel, the young superstar conductor who on this showing could hardly be priced too high. He is musical in every fibre of his body, and his Shostakovich was as profound and patient as his Mexican and Argentine second half was sparky and uninhibited. THE DAILY TELEGRAPH .
I have witnessed some enthusiastic responses to Shostakovich's Tenth Symphony, but nothing quite on the scale that greeted the Simón Bolívar Youth Orchestra of Venezuela ... Part of this rapture was directed at Gustavo Dudamel, the young superstar conductor who on this showing could hardly be priced too high. He is musical in every fibre of his body, and his Shostakovich was as profound and patient as his Mexican and Argentine second half was sparky and uninhibited. THE DAILY TELEGRAPH .
Symphony No. 10 (Shostakovich) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The second movement is a short and violent scherzo, described in Testimony as "a musical portrait of Stalin, roughly speaking".
Don't fight forces, use them R. Buckminster Fuller.
What would we do without your breadth of musical input, rg? Danke. "Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one's courage." - Anaïs Nin
Symphony No. 7 (Shostakovich) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Soviet music critic Lev Lebedinsky, a friend of the composer's for many years, confirmed after the dawn of glasnost ("openness") under Mikhail Gorbachev that Shostakovich had conceived the Seventh Symphony before Hitler invaded Russia: " The famous theme in the first movement Shostakovich had first as the Stalin theme (which close friends of the composer knew). Right after the war started, the composer called it the anti-Hitler theme. Later Shostakovich referred to that "German" theme as the "theme of evil," which was absolutely true, since the theme was just as much anti-Hitler as it was anti-Stalin, even though the world music community fixed on only the first of the two definitions.[10] " Another important witness was the daughter-in-law of Maxim Litvinov, the man who served as Soviet foreign minister before the war, then was dismissed by Stalin. She heard Shostakovich play the Seventh Symphony on the piano in a private home during the war. The guests later discussed the music: " And then Shostakovich said meditatively: of course, it's about fascism, but music, real music is never literally tied to a theme. Fascism is not simply National Socialism, and this is music about terror, slavery, and oppression of the spirit. Later, when Shostakovich got used to me and came to trust me, he said openly that the Seventh (and the Fifth as well) was not only about fascism but about our country and generally about all tyranny and totalitarianism.[11]
Soviet music critic Lev Lebedinsky, a friend of the composer's for many years, confirmed after the dawn of glasnost ("openness") under Mikhail Gorbachev that Shostakovich had conceived the Seventh Symphony before Hitler invaded Russia:
Another important witness was the daughter-in-law of Maxim Litvinov, the man who served as Soviet foreign minister before the war, then was dismissed by Stalin. She heard Shostakovich play the Seventh Symphony on the piano in a private home during the war. The guests later discussed the music:
But also...Charles Mingus...and drinking Caol Ila! I haven't got there quite with either, but...hey!
;)
As always, I bow to the gift to me that is F.I.P. Don't fight forces, use them R. Buckminster Fuller.
