Shostakovich was at the height of his compositional powers during the darkest periods of his, his country’s, and the world’s time. Most of Shostakovich’s works are very pessimistic (with a few exceptions, like the 9th symphony, and on some level the 7th), but what do you think his darkest, most pessimistic symphony is. I would have to pick the 4th.
mahlernerd
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4,397 Posts
For as bleak as is the Symphony 13 ("Babi Yar"), it is the 14th by Shostakovich that truly plumbs the depths of darkness and despair.
Music critic and radio commentator Jim Svejda once wrote something to the effect that one shouldn't listen to this particular symphony more than once or twice in a life-time as it could lead one to suicide. I recall remarking that quote to a group of students one time which, predictably, got them interested in wanting to hear this bleak work. The topic under discussion was actually the poetry of Spanish master Garcia Lorca, poetry of whom Shosty set in the first and second movements of the 14th. But I had set-up the class to hear the Shosty piece. (And music by George Crumb as well.) Fortunately no one died for the experience, at least not from my class.
So much of Shostakovich is dark and indeed pessimistic, qualities which seem to increase in the musical fabric of each successive work till it is almost unbearable by the final opus numbers. I've long lamented that Shostakovich didn't live to see the fall of the suppressive Communist regime of which his music so aptly critiques in its dark and sardonic passages.
But Symphony 14 takes the cake for darkness. The enigmatic 15 seems to me to demonstrate something beyond pure bleakness, something more in the realm of "one goes mad" after living in Shostakovich's world for too long. Indeed, if Symphony 15 is not a study in madness, I know not what is. But even madness is perhaps a saving grace compared to the dark dances of death present in Symphony 14.
Music critic and radio commentator Jim Svejda once wrote something to the effect that one shouldn't listen to this particular symphony more than once or twice in a life-time as it could lead one to suicide. I recall remarking that quote to a group of students one time which, predictably, got them interested in wanting to hear this bleak work. The topic under discussion was actually the poetry of Spanish master Garcia Lorca, poetry of whom Shosty set in the first and second movements of the 14th. But I had set-up the class to hear the Shosty piece. (And music by George Crumb as well.) Fortunately no one died for the experience, at least not from my class.
So much of Shostakovich is dark and indeed pessimistic, qualities which seem to increase in the musical fabric of each successive work till it is almost unbearable by the final opus numbers. I've long lamented that Shostakovich didn't live to see the fall of the suppressive Communist regime of which his music so aptly critiques in its dark and sardonic passages.
But Symphony 14 takes the cake for darkness. The enigmatic 15 seems to me to demonstrate something beyond pure bleakness, something more in the realm of "one goes mad" after living in Shostakovich's world for too long. Indeed, if Symphony 15 is not a study in madness, I know not what is. But even madness is perhaps a saving grace compared to the dark dances of death present in Symphony 14.
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