Wonderful stuff, I thank each of you for your comments and insights.
One of the things I find fascinating about Shostakovich is that, especially in the West, we feel compelled to always regard his music through the prism of politics. It is probably true to say Shostakovich lived through what has thus far been the most horrific phase of our history. There were not only the Gulags, the political correctness imposed by a brutal Police State - Nazi Germany was similar in that regard - there were the Ukrainian famines, the slaughter of Jews by the Nazis, and what most people forget, the death toll of Soviet citizens during WW2. One can beg the question, How was it possible to make any music at all during this period? IN the end, we will never know the true extent of Shostakovich the 'Taking the Piss' composer, or the Shostakovich in second, third, or fourth gear. We can viscerally feel Shostakovich in top-flight -the Passacaglia from the First Violin Concerto, the 13th, 4th, and 15th SYmphonies, the late Orchestral Song cycles, the quartets, the piano Quintet, the Piano Trio, the Preludes and Fugues, the Second Cello Concerto. Here we don't ask too many questions and the music speaks for itself. I guess that's my problem with 7, 11, and 12, in that you have to make up a program, and, like the bible, that program ain't necessarily so.
By the way, Lee, I loved your description of the Moscow Underground. It reminds me of the time in the early 1960s, my teenage Brylcreem years when my father said he used Brylcreem in the 1930's. It sort of reminds me that many of our perceptions of other countries, their people, their culture are largely filtered by a film of propaganda.
Message Thread
« Back to index | View thread »
Thank you for taking part in the MusicWeb International Forum.
Len Mullenger - Founder of MusicWeb