Which are your favorite shostakovich symphonies? Which ones are over or underrated in your opinion?
I very much agree.The 5th remains a shattering masterpiece, I contend, and one of the strongest symphonies in the history of the form. As absolute music it is astounding; as program music it raises itself to an even higher level.
Yes, but friends reported he berated himself for having joined the party, calling himself a cowardly worm for doing so. He seems not to have regarded it as a proud moment. And it is good to remember Richard Taruskin's words to the effect that there were no dissidents in Stalin's USSR, no living ones anyway.I'm very hesitant to tie Shostakovich's music to his political experience in the Soviet Union. After all, our ideas of what his life was like are based mostly on those garish comic books we carry around in our heads. He definitely had two periods where he had good reason to be worried, but otherwise he served in the Supreme Soviet of the Russian SFSR from 1947 to 1962 and the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union from 1962 until his death. And he was invited to join the Party (considered an honor) in 1960 and he accepted. You will search in vain for any negative comment he made about the Party or his nation aside from informal comments to friends, and I'm sure there were plenty of those from just about everybody (as there are, today, in my own country).
Better to take his music on its own account.
Forced to live for most of his life under a totalitarian regime - one moment in favor with Soviet leaders, then just as quickly out of it again - for much of his career Shostakovich was judged by political rather than musical criteria. He once described life under Stalin's regime as "unbelievably mean and hard. Every day brought more bad news and I felt so much pain. I was so lonely and afraid." Denounced in 1936 as "an enemy of the people", friends he had once considered loyal supporters began crossing the street to avoid him. To know him was dangerous; to associate with him, potentially fatal. He risked execution or deportation to the Gulag yet played the system just carefully enough to survive, publishing music that earned him praise for "not having given in to the seductive temptations of his previous 'erroneous' ways"; at least, that is, until his second denunciation for "formalism" and "western influences" in 1948, after which most of his music was banned.
Without party guidance I would have displayed more brilliance, used more sarcasm - Dmitri Shostakovich
Following Stalin's death in 1953 in you can almost feel, in his music, the gigantic breath of relief, as he could start to publish not just the "desk drawer" works he'd kept under wraps for years, including the Fourth Symphony, but also works in which he could openly give musical expression to the brutalities he and his contemporaries had endured under Stalin's purges. "Without party guidance," he later said, "I would have displayed more brilliance, used more sarcasm, I could have revealed my ideas openly instead of having to resort to camouflage." [unquote]
http://www.bbc.com/culture/story/20150807-shostakovich-the-composer-who-was-almost-purged
The history of his Symphony No. 4. Nope... no political interference or problems here that he might possibly have privately objected to-
Dmitri Shostakovich composed his Symphony No. 4 in C minor, Opus 43, between September 1935 and May 1936, after abandoning some preliminary sketch material. In January 1936, halfway through this period, Pravda-under direct orders from Joseph Stalin[1]-published an editorial "Muddle Instead of Music" that denounced the composer and targeted his opera Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk. Despite this attack, and despite the oppressive political climate of the time, Shostakovich completed the symphony and planned its premiere for December 1936 in Leningrad. After rehearsals began, the orchestra's management canceled the performance, offering a statement that Shostakovich had withdrawn the work. He may have agreed to withdraw it to relieve orchestra officials of responsibility. The symphony was premiered on 30 December 1961 by the Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra led by Kirill Kondrashin.[unquote]
It's always a tribute to the composer when Americans try to rewrite Russian history from a safe and sanitized point of view because they just don't know who to believe when reading about him, despite living almost his entire life under the microscope of political criticism and occasional rewards. During the Great Purge or the Great Terror which occurred from 1936 to 1938. It was estimated that at least 600,000 people died at the hands of the Stalin-led Soviet government.
But did he say this? The problem with the "Shostakovich Wars" is that we are expected to challenge everything he said and was said about him.Without party guidance I would have displayed more brilliance, used more sarcasm - Dmitri Shostakovich
Yes, and the 6th was supposed to be a vast tribute to Lenin, and Lady MacBeth was supposed to be the first of a cycle about Russian women (when it was popular and uncondemned) … Shostakovich made those kind of promises all the time. Good point about the 9th.Denunciation, Stalin Prize, Denunciation, Stalin Prize...stick, carrot, stick, carrot...
In a way I think Shostakovich's gutsiest symphony is the 9th, especially as he publicly stated that he intended to compose a choral symphony "about the greatness of the Russian people, about our Red Army liberating our native land from the enemy". The 9th did not turn out that way, and I'm surprised Shostakovich didn't get into hot water immediately for producing a work which ended up being completely at odds with his original statement.
Agree that the 1st is a real treat. When it was first performed, on DSCH's graduation from the conservatory, it brought him attention not just in Russia but globally. It was pretty obvious that he was something special. Certainly one of the very greatest "Firsts", along with Brahms and Mahler.Barshai's recording of the Shostakovich 1st is brilliant. It's perfect as one of the greatest 1st Symphonies ever written, in my opinion. I hate to see it lumped in with No. 2 and 3, and I think even those were honest failed attempts. I think listeners should look for better performances of the 1st, such as the well performed and recorded Barshai's. Even with number 2 and 3, it was Shostakovich before the authorities started irrevocably messing around with his mind like with his later symphonies. How he managed to write anything with confidence is a miracle, and I hope the point is never lost.
I've been going to concerts for 50 years and have only ever heard 1, 5, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 live. The 5th repeatedly. I've been playing concerts for almost as long, and have only had the chance to play 1, 5, 9, and 10. I'd love to play 4! Someday, an orchestra somewhere will begin doing Shostakovich Festivals like they do festivals for Mozart, Beethoven, and Mahler. It'd be great to hear all the symphonies and concertos as well as some of the ballet or film music with a first-class orchestra and a sympathetic conductor. Helsinki would be a good place to do it, too!...I've only heard the 1st, 4th, 10th and 15th symphonies live!
Interesting list. The only people I've ever seen consider the 15th to be the best are you and Scaruffi. From what I can tell 4 is also usually considered to be among the very best, and 13/14 at the least in the upper half. I say all of this without knowing the works too well though, and I'm sure you'd know them better than me! The main point of this post is I'm noticing that opinions on Shosties symphonies are more varied than most other composers.Shostakovich's are among the toughest to put in qualitative order, except that I think 15 is for sure his greatest masterpiece (and one of music's all time masterpieces).
If forced to choose it would probably go something like the following (with only his 15th secure, rankings 2nd place through 9th place potentially interchangable and all of them among his best work imo. Below that are probably his "least great").
(1st) Symphony No. 15
(2) 7
(3) 8
(4) 1
(5) 10
(6) 11
(7) 9
(8) 6
(9) 5
(10) 4
(11) 3
(12) 12
(13) 2
(14) 13
(15) 14
His 5th Symphony in particular moves around a lot for me, sometimes seeming diabolically ambiguous, in mesmerizing conflict/anguish with itself; other times seeming thematically indecisive/confused and perhaps mitigating a bit of its own momentum. Sometimes I rank it as high as his 2nd best, other times as low as his 9th best and all rankings in between...