# Intro into Shostakovich



## Sonata (Aug 7, 2010)

I am not very familiar with this particular composer. I have only heard his cello sonata in D minor and cello concerto in E flat major. I felt they were worthwhile listening, but can't say they are favored works for me by any means.

I'm made some breakthroughs in enjoyment of the symphonic genre lately, and I am interested in trying out one or two of his, or other orchestral pieces of his. Can you recommend a couple works of his that are powerful, without too much brass, that still retains a strong melody? I am ok with dissonance if it's a portion of a greater work, but too much puts me off.


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

A suggestion, maybe an oddball one. His 9th Symphony. Or (a bit milder) his 1st.


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## Art Rock (Nov 28, 2009)

Symphonies: start with 5, 7 and 10.
Concertos: piano 2, violin 1+2
Chamber: SQ8, piano quintet


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## Faville (Sep 15, 2012)

Asking for orchestral Shostakovich that's powerful without too much brass or dissonance is a bit of a tall order. Reading the thread title my suggestions would be the 5th, 7th, 12th symphonies and string quartets from 8 on plus the piano quintet, but that's basically lots of brass and dissonance. Lots of power, there, though!

I also am fond of the Piano Concerto no. 1 and the Jazz Suites.
Love Suite No. 2


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## Vaneyes (May 11, 2010)

Cello Cti. 1 & 2 - Schiff/M.Shostakovich (Decca/Philips)
Syms. 1 & 7 - CSO/Bernstein (DG)
String Quartets 2, 3, 7, 8, 12 - Borodin Qt. (Virgin 2CD)
Preludes & Fugues, Op. 87 - Scherbakov (Naxos 2CD)


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## drpraetorus (Aug 9, 2012)

Try the Jazz suites, the score for The Gadfly, String quartets especially 8, Piano Preludes and fugues. 1st Symphony is the least "brassy" of the early earlier symphonies. 13 is very un brassy 14 even more so. Symphony in F is mostly strings. Piano quintet.


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## ComposerOfAvantGarde (Dec 2, 2011)

Piano concertos, string quartet no. 8, cello concertos, jazz suites, preludes and fugues.


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## Sonata (Aug 7, 2010)

Thanks for the suggestions so far everyone!! I've decided my first listen will be Symphony#7, since that apppeared to be a common answer. Also, reading up on that symphony, I've realized that I actually did bookmark that very one a few months back, so I had an interest in that one already.

I'll also try the Jazz suites, and a piano concerto. If I am interested in continuing at that point, I'll move on to symphonies #1 and #5, and go from there.


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## jani (Jun 15, 2012)

KenOC said:


> A suggestion, maybe an oddball one. His 9th Symphony. Or (a bit milder) his 1st.


Omg i love his ninth.
I heard that the reason why he made it sound so "comical" is that he wanted to show how silly the " Curse of the ninth" thing is.


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## Manxfeeder (Oct 19, 2010)

If you get a chance, see if you can get ahold of David Hurwitz's Shostakovich Symphonies and Concertos, An Owner's Manual. It helped me to grasp this composer.

Hurwitz writes in an approachable style, and he lets you know what the composer is doing that's so innovative in these symphonies. He'll even get you to like the 7th symphony.


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

jani said:


> Omg i love his ninth.
> I heard that the reason why he made it sound so "comical" is that he wanted to show how silly the " Curse of the ninth" thing is.


And it did turn out to have a pretty nasty curse, as DSCH found out in 1948. But not a terminal curse, fortunately!


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## elgar's ghost (Aug 8, 2010)

Although there have been enough suggestions to keep you going I would like to mention the two Chamber Symphonies for Strings (which are Rudolf Barshai's arrangements of Shostakovich's string quartets nos. 8 & 10) and especially the suite from the ballet 'The Bolt', an early-ish work which shows how irreverent young Soviet artists could be at a time when poking fun at certain aspects of life in the USSR didn't necessarily result in disgrace, exile, torture or liquidation just yet - although the work was received badly at its premiere and was blacklisted a few years later when DSCH got into doo-doo for the first time with his opera 'Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District' and another ballet, 'The Limpid Stream'. I've recommended the suite as a taster as the complete music lasts for well over two hours and would possibly be a bit much for a Shosters newbie.


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

elgars ghost said:


> I would like to mention the two Chamber Symphonies for Strings (which are Rudolf Barshai's arrangements of Shostakovich's string quartets nos. 8 & 10) ...


These are the chamber symphonies Op 110a and Op. 118a respectively. Most totally excellent and impressive works, a good introduction to the string quartets.

http://www.amazon.com/Shostakovich-...words=shostakovich+barshai+chamber+symphonies


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## swaffles (Nov 20, 2012)

Most people I know, and myself, first learned about this great composer through performing the 5th symphony. That seems to be the great standard of Shostakovitch, perhaps is most performed work. The 10th symphony comes close. I also played in an orchestra for the performance of his cello concerto, which is also a really well known work of his.


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## elgar's ghost (Aug 8, 2010)

KenOC said:


> These are the chamber symphonies Op 110a and Op. 118a respectively. Most totally excellent and impressive works, a good introduction to the string quartets.
> 
> http://www.amazon.com/Shostakovich-...words=shostakovich+barshai+chamber+symphonies


Hi Ken - the versions I have are on BIS with Juha Kangas and the Ostrobothnian Orch. I was especially drawn to this recording as it included the hitherto unavailable Suite on Finnish Themes from 1939. Poor old DSCH - still licking his wounds after 'Lady Macbethgate' and here he is with impeccable timing writing a work based on folksongs from a country that would soon be at war with the Soviet Union!


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## Manxfeeder (Oct 19, 2010)

swaffles said:


> Most people I know, and myself, first learned about this great composer through performing the 5th symphony.


That's interesting. Looking back, the 5th was my first exposure to Shostakovich. Back when I was 18, digging through my deceased uncle's collection of classical recordings from the '50s, I remember discovering his disks of Shostakovich's 5th, wondering who this guy Shostakovich was, stacking those old 78s on the turntable, and feeling a very emotional reaction.

Maybe that's why I prefer Shostakovich on the Melodiya label; I think his music sounds better if the sound of the recording isn't the best.


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

elgars ghost said:


> Hi Ken - the versions I have are on BIS with Juha Kangas and the Ostrobothnian Orch. I was especially drawn to this recording as it included the hitherto unavailable Suite on Finnish Themes from 1939.


No, I'm not going to buy another recording of these. I'm not! I'm... but let me look it up, just out of curiosity, and check the price... :lol:


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## drpraetorus (Aug 9, 2012)

I first became aware of Shostakovich in 1967. The school district I was in had a youth orchestra for the Jr. high ages and I played 4th horn. That year the conductor chose the finale to Shostakovich 5th as one of the pieces. I enjoyed it because of the energy and power in the music. The bombast mentioned earlier in this thread was very evident. Jr. high students are not really keen on subtlety in music, or anything else for that matter. I remember in our final concert of that year, we were playing the Shostakovich and we were all really into it. The last few measures were coming on and the timpanist was even more energetic than usual. In those last couple measures with the timp and base drum pounding out the quarter notes, I watched as the timpanist broke one of his sticks and the head went spiraling up in the air. He just went on one handing it. The audience loved it. I have no idea where the stick landed. 

I liked the part of the 5th we played enough to try to find a recording. There was not one to be had at my local record store, but I figured if the 5 was good than the 1 should be good as well. I was disappointed. It is a more subtle piece and the orchestration only points to where he was heading. There was none of the flash and bombast that I was looking for. Again the teen tastes running amok. I sort of gave up on the 1st, but the album also had the “Age of Gold” suite and I rather liked that. Especially the “Polka”. So the record stayed in my play list. 

A little later I did get a copy of the 5th. Moscow Symphony with Kyril Kondrashin. I liked the symphony as a whole but still preferred the finale. I am somewhat chagrined to say that I usually skipped over the third movement. No horns, no good. 

Because of the success of the 5th, I found a recording of the 4th. This was billed on the cover as the world premier recording. I thought that was cool. It was Ormandy and the Philadelphia Orchestra. I was blown away. It is an amazing work from the first rude opening notes to the lontano ending. That became and remains my favorite of Shostakovichs works. However, I did not really understand it or the 5th or the 1st. The notes on the back of the albums did not mention, as I recall, the real danger Shostakovich faced especially when he withdrew the 4th from rehearsal. The 5th kind of glossed over the point as well, but did talk about how popular it was, without really saying why. Those were the days when a person was branded a “Red Bater” for telling the truth about what was happening in the Soviet Union. So it went un mentioned or glossed over. 

That was the extent of my association with the music of Shostakovich for many years. I borrowed the 7th from the library but found it rather dull. I tried the preludes and fugues and found them not like Bach at all, so I gave them a skip. The “Festive Overture” was popular on the classical radio station but I did not have a copy in my library. Those Shostakovich works were about as far as I was willing to go in the dissonant music of the 20th Century. 

Slowly over the years, I picked up some more 20th Century works. I found the Masquerade suite by Khachaturian to be very interesting. A little Joseph Schwantner, some Orff, not too much Copland. For a while I was crazy for Crumb. Not so much now. The only Shostakovich I bought was the CD of the Bernstein, New York Phil performance. By that time I had learned to enjoy the entire symphony, including the third movement. I remember the impression on me when I heard the finale. It was much faster than the Kondrashin and I thought “Now I really understand this symphony”. I thought it was all about the triumph of man. Typical C minor symphony stuff. Looking back I wonder if Bernstein actually understood it at all. It’s still a great performance but knowing what Shostakovich said about the 5th now, it seems out of place. 

Then Apple invented the iPod. I bought my first iPod in about 2002 or 2003. It had the then amazing storage of 20 gigs. I put every CD I had on that, including, of course, the Shostakovich. But, as iPods are wont to do, the battery died and, as you may know you can’t replace them. I was Podless for a while but got a new one as a gift. This had, or has, 60 gigs. I was now faced with the embarrassment of riches with that much space and not enough music to fill it. So I went looking for was to fill it. I’m still looking.

This is when I turned to Shostakovich again. I had learned a bit more about him and his struggles. My tastes had broadened, thanks to my college music work. I thought it was time to give old Dmitri a chance again. I looked for the 7th but found the 15th. I am still trying to figure that one out. But, I liked it. So I went for the other symphonies. I also read as much as I could about his life, including “Testimony”.


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## Siegmund (Aug 9, 2010)

His 11th Symphony, which I believe has not been mentioned yet, is also very worthwhile! Very impressive and enormously powerfull. A very interesting work, by the way, with regards to Shostakovich is his controversial autobiography, "Testimony", published and edited by Solomon Volkov. To me Shostakovich's symphonies gained a lot in power and meaning when I knew more about the specific history and intention behind the work.


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## drpraetorus (Aug 9, 2012)

I agree with you. The 11th is a very good work. It is often criticized for being too much like movie music but I don't seer that as a drawback. Testimony is also very good. A must read for Shostakovich fans and detractors as well.


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## Sonata (Aug 7, 2010)

I listened to the first movement of Leningrad during my lunch break on Tuesday....and unfortunately I have not been able to get back to it due to traveling during the Thanksgiving holiday. Tonight my time will be devoted to spending time with my family and getting back to the keyboard. But tomorrow during lunch I'll finish the symphony. 

I really liked most of the first movement. I didn't care for the length of the march segment, it went way too long for my preference, though I understand its import. I read some more about him and I'm really intruiged, I think getting involved in his biography and music will be an interesting blend of history and music. It's the first time that I'm exploring a composer based on his place in history and as an ambassador or voice of his people so to speak, rather than the music itself pulling me in right off the bat. I am looking forward to the journey.


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## Xaltotun (Sep 3, 2010)

Personally, I wouldn't suggest symphony #7 as the first one to listen to: although I like it very much, I still find it a rather peculiar work, puzzling even. #1, #5, #9 and #10, now those I would agree with.


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## Faville (Sep 15, 2012)

Sonata said:


> I really liked most of the first movement. I didn't care for the length of the march segment, it went way too long for my preference, though I understand its import.


Check out Bernstein's recording, he takes the liberty of shortening it some.

This is turning into the season of Shostakovich for me. I'm slowly filling out my collection--replaced my Haitink 7 & 12 that I loaned to a student years back and never saw again, got an additional 13th (again Haitink, which I used to listen to from the library, but purchased Rozhdestvensky/Melodiya label), and an 8th symphony, which I've never heard. Still need 3, 4, 6, 9 for a complete set.

It helps that I've been swimming in William T. Vollmann's book _Europe Central_ which contains DS as a character for much of the book.


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## Mahlerian (Nov 27, 2012)

Faville said:


> This is turning into the season of Shostakovich for me. I'm slowly filling out my collection--replaced my Haitink 7 & 12 that I loaned to a student years back and never saw again, got an additional 13th (again Haitink, which I used to listen to from the library, but purchased Rozhdestvensky/Melodiya label), and an 8th symphony, which I've never heard. Still need 3, 4, 6, 9 for a complete set.


Please get a 4th as quickly as possible. In my (rather unpopular) opinion, it's the best symphony Shostakovich wrote. I'm still wishing that he hadn't been denounced, and could have written more like it, although then the 5th wouldn't be quite the same.


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## drpraetorus (Aug 9, 2012)

The 4th is my favorite. The ending is incedibly haunting.


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## Faville (Sep 15, 2012)

Any recommendations for a specific version of the 4th?




Or 3, 6, 9?

I actually do not have a version of the 5th on CD but I've played it many times and probably listened to it a hundred times. My favorite version at this point is Maxim Shostakovich with the USSR symphony. I bought it on cassette on the old Allegro label when I was in college and it was my intro to the piece and still my absolute favorite version.


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## drpraetorus (Aug 9, 2012)

If you can find it, get the Ormandy performance. I don't know if it's out on cd or mp3 but it is very good. The CD version I have is Neeme Jarvi and the Scottish National Orchestra.Also a very good performance.


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## chalkpie (Oct 5, 2011)

Just buy the Barshai boxset, and maybe the Emerson or Fitzwilliam SQ box set.

Life is too short NOT to listen to Shosta. And please don't buy the ** that he is Mahler part II, he is a complete original, although he has some "Mahlerisms", but this man was pure gold and a musical genius.


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## Dustin (Mar 30, 2012)

Speaking of Shostakovich, anyone else seen this interesting ranking of the top Shostakovich works based on a survey? I look at it from time to time just to get suggestions since I'm such a Shostakovich newbie. It lists quite a few of his works. Any thought or agreements/disagreements?

http://www.livewild.org/dschsurv.html


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## MJongo (Aug 6, 2011)

I've seen that list, and I've always felt it is a little "off". IMO, the Piano Quintet should be in the top 5.


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## elgar's ghost (Aug 8, 2010)

The late Violin Sonata is far too good to share the same lowly position as the worthy but relatively immature Piano Trio no. 1 but how to accommodate it in the top half of the first list without lowering the position of another great work that's already there?


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## EdwardBast (Nov 25, 2013)

Do not choose the 7th. It is one of his worst compositions. Wartime potboiler.

Without hesitation I would recommend the Tenth, though you are just going to have to forget about the "not too much brass" thing. The Tenth is currently one of the most widely and prolifically performed 20th century symphonies, rapidly overtaking the Fifth as the most performed symphony by Shostakovich. Critical opinion has long favored it as the best of the purely instrumental symphonies; popular opinion and performance history is at last beginning to confirm this view.

It is also the most controversial of his symphonies with respect to interpretation. The third movement contains the very first appearance of the composer's signature motive (D. SCH., which in German transliteration, yields the notes D-Eb-C-B). Solomon Volkov, in _Testimony_, claims the second movement is a musical portrait of Stalin, but Volkov has pretty much been discredited as a reliable source. Nevertheless, the work was composed just after the death of Stalin, and there are musical allusions and quotations of other works that hint at hidden meanings. Interestingly, a few minutes from the end of the symphony, the Shostakovich signature motive returns to crush the revenant theme of the second movement (the alleged Stalin theme) out of existence. The first movement is, IMO, awesomely powerful and harrowing.


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## Reinhold (Nov 24, 2013)

His Symphony No. 5 was my first, and probably my favorite out of them. The first movement has a pleasing string presence, but here is much more brass and woodwinds later on as the piece progresses.


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