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Shostakovich symphonies

20K views 112 replies 47 participants last post by  Heck148 
#1 ·
Which are your favorite shostakovich symphonies? Which ones are over or underrated in your opinion?
 
#2 ·
My favorite Shostakovich symphony is "Symphony #10". As to which are over or underrated I'll leave that to others. Symphony #10, String Quartet #8, and Piano Concerto #2 are at the top of my list for this composer.
 
#3 ·
Fourth to tenth - whatever their moods and strengths/weaknesses for me this a cycle within a cycle, and a powerful one at that.
 
#5 ·
It would be difficult for me to say which ones are overrated. I do think that #12 is underrated.
My favorite is probably #4. Out of all of them I have listened to 5 and 7 the most.

I feel his masterpieces of the genre are 4, 5, 10 and 13. A case for the same stature can be made for 1, 8, 11, 14 and 15.
6 is very interesting in itself. 9 was a guffaw to those great and grand 9th's of history. I think it's a great work.
2 and 3 were experimental and are worth listening to. I only have one recording of these works. The Rostropovich/Teldec which represents each of them very nicely.

I like 7 very much. The Bernstein/Chicago/DG recording spoiled me quickly. It was the first recording of 7 I purchased. One of Lenny's greatest in my opinion.
 
#12 ·
#4 is my favorite, perhaps because it was the one most inspired by Mahler. I also really like #14.

Beyond that, I think the rest of them are problematic at best. 1, 5, 7, 8, and 10 all have some good stuff, but are flawed in various ways. 2-3 are awful, 11-13 and 15 are forgettable also-rans. I've actually come to prefer the more smaller-scale stuff like 6 and 9; perhaps I've come to think Shosta was best when he wasn't striving after romantic grandness but allowed his humorous, more concise and classical side to shine. Maybe also why I prefer his string quartets to his symphonies.
 
#67 · (Edited)
That's a new one, I feel like many people view the finale as the highlight of the fifth.

Personally I believe the best moments are in the first and third movements and the second movement as a whole has incredible wit, nails the humor idea and is SUPER fun to listen to - there is something to say for that.

As for the fourth, do you dislike it because of that homestretch that just kind of bangs out the last melody really tediously? I'm sure you know that part is supposed to have some irony/satiral purpose to it, presumably to satirize the exalting of the state especially following DS' fall from Stalin's good graces, but I imagine your view is that we shouldn't forgive unrefined or 'lazy' endings even if the point is to convey some agenda...just my idea for your view. That contextual meanings can't necessarily redeem an underwhelming finale.

This wasn't intended to interrogate you on your view, more just for discussion. I just thought it was interesting
 
#18 ·
Voting game from the old Amazon forum:

Shostakovich symphonies:
1 - Symphony #10 in E minor, Op. 93 (1953)
2 - Symphony #5 in D minor, Op. 47 (1937)
3 - Symphony #4 in C minor, Op. 43 (1935-1936)
4 - Symphony #8 in C minor, Op. 65 (1943)
5 - Symphony #15 in A major, Op. 141 (1971)
6 - Symphony #6 in B minor, Op. 54 (1939)
7 - Symphony #13 in Bb minor, Op. 113 'Babi-Yar' (1962)
8 - Symphony #1 in F minor, Op. 10 (1924-1925)
9 - Symphony #11 in G minor, Op. 103 'The Year 1905' (1957)
10 - Symphony #7 in C major, Op. 60 'Leningrad' (1941)
11 - Symphony #9 in Eb major, Op. 70 (1945)
12 - Symphony #14, Op. 135 (1969)
13 - Symphony #12 in D minor, Op. 112 'The Year 1917' (1961)
14 - Symphony #2 in B major, Op. 14 'To October' (1927)
15 - Symphony #3 in Eb major, Op. 20 'The First of May '(1929)
 
#20 ·
I have only really spent time with the 4th. It's the first modern symphony I've tried to get my head around. At first I had trouble with it: it seemed over long and didn't make a coherent whole. However, I then saw it live paired with the 1st violin concerto. I went for the concerto and decided to just take or leave the symphony, yet I was surprised how much I liked it. It kept my attention pretty much throughout despite being an hour long and I found the end genuinely horrifying.

I've listened to the 5th and the 10th a couple of times each but so far they've not clicked as much for me. I'm not sure which to try next. I found this short summary of the symphonies which has given me some ideas. Maybe the 1st, 8th, or 9th. I also bought a copy of Hurwitz's book, which seems like a good introduction for my purposes.
 
#23 ·
No. 4. There's something about the closing pages that haunts the memory. And even after all the modern recordings, I still go back to Ormandy/Philadelphia.

Then on to: 9, 1, 5, 10, 8. The rest I don't listen to that much. Can't take 2 or 3. I don't get the 15th at all. No. 7 is another that I am indifferent to. It doesn't do much for me.
 
#24 ·
Most are good in one way or another but the ones that stick in my mind as distinctive in their various ways are 1, 4, 5, 6, 10, 13 and 14. There is nothing wrong with the others but I would be happy enough if those were the only ones I had. I would be quite fussy about which recordings I had of them, though.
 
#26 ·
Love them all, generally - 2 and 3 are weak, IMO...3 is actually quite interesting....unfortunately, DS had to add those party-pleasing tub-thumping choral finales onto both of them..#12 seems unfocused, as if DS somehow lost his way on this one..

#1 is amazing - a great first symphony..already we see the genius to come...

I like #11 - excellent work...
the rest are all superb, great works...
 
#29 ·
I don't really like 12, 2, 3, and the opening movement of 7. Otherwise I like them all, with 8, 10, 6, 4 and 15 being favorites.
 
#30 · (Edited)
Beyond Nos. 2&3, which are ephemeral communist propagandist claptrap, and No.12 which is also rubbish, and the over-long and rather dated No.7, there isn't a weak work among them. I myself find No.14 hard to enjoy, it's debatable if it's a symphony or not, and for me he wrote better song cycles. It's relentlessly depressing to be honest. Then again, so is the last quartet, and that is a major masterpiece.

Of the others, I'd put No10 down as the finest, but I think Nos. 6, 8, 13 run it close. The most underrated is probably No.15, especially as most of us don't fancy facing Death square in the face. And No.11 is a far better piece than some credit it as. No disrespect to the Symphonies, but his out and out masterpiece has to be the 1st Violin Concerto.

IMHO , of course.....
 
#33 ·
Beyond Nos. 2&3, which are ephemeral communist propagandist claptrap, and No.12 which is also rubbish, ....I myself find No.14 hard to enjoy, it's debatable if it's a symphony or not, and for me he wrote better song cycles. It's relentlessly depressing to be honest.
#3 is rather interesting up until the party-apparatchik choral bs....2 is no place....and 12 is unfocused, he lost the train of thought??
I agree about 14 - it is very good [I think], but I have to take it in small doses...really quite depressing...
 
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