September 25, 2007

  • HB: Shostakovich

    Today marks the birthdate of Dmitri Shostakovich (1906-1975).  Shostakovich's music was probably the first music I heard as "contemporary" mostly because of his name being in the news when I was younger.  The first piece I heard though was from his more accessible period, the wonderful Festive Overture--even this was on an old Boston Pops LP.  But it was one LP that included his first symphony and the Cello Concerto where I became a bit more interested in his music.  That recording, with Eugene Ormandy and the Philadelphia Orchestra (Rostropovich the soloist) was a real favorite of mine shaping my interest in contemporary music.  His fifth symphony all but cemented this when I found an old recording on a bargain bin CD featuring his son Maxim conducting (since reissued again on an RCA CD). 

    Last year was the Shostakovich Centenary but the musical world seemed to do little to mark it.  It may have more to do with the fact that so much of the composer's music has been available quite readily.  He certainly has fared well on record.  The earlier symphonies, through at least the 10th, are my personal favorites with Bernard Haitink being my preferred conductor for many of these recordings.  I was surprised to see that the 4th seemed to pop up more often of late, it's the most difficult to bring off but Jansons seems to have found at least one way to make it's large structures make sense.

    In the string quartets we hear some of the most interesting of the composer's output and even for those who often dislike chamber music, Shostakovich's string quartets are well worth being acquainted with as a whole.  The Manhattan String Quartet put out a complete survey of these several years ago for ESS.AY which are among the finest performances on CD. 

    Also worth tracking down are the Chandos film music series featuring cues from throughout the composer's works for film.  I'm a little partial to The Golden Mountains.

    If there are some key works worth adding to your collection I would suggest these:

    Cello Concerto #1
    Piano Concerto #2
    Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk (opera)
    String Quartet #8 and 12
    Symphony #s 1, 5, 7, 10

    There are a couple of good compilations of Shostakovich's "lighter music" conducted by Riccardo Chailly that are also a little easier to get to know some of his style.