# Shostakovich symphony no. 15 in A... a hard nut to crack..



## Fugue Meister (Jul 5, 2014)

My love for Shostakovich's music runs deep but I've always found his last symphony a bit of a puzzle. Particularly for his use of quotations of other composers work and the mixed bag of emotions it stirs. Every time I listen to it I find myself wondering what he was trying to say with this one. What do you suppose it's on about, if you were to offer any theories or thoughts... 

(Also sub-topic do you consider Shostakovich's 14 symphony really a symphony or would a song cycle be a better categorization of it?)


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## violadude (May 2, 2011)

I think it's about ambiguities between major and minor keys. 

At least the beginning is.

The ending is about clocky sounding percussion instruments.


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## brotagonist (Jul 11, 2013)

I always thought it was supposed to be light and childlike. Shostakovich was said to have been inspired by Prokofiev's Symphony 7, which has sometimes been called the "Children's Symphony" (Wikipedia). I think I took it too literally, now that I read what Guardian columnist Tom Service had written. He says that Symphony 15 "belongs to the period of Shostakovich's darkest music." Talk about having missed the point  I'm going to have to listen to it in the next days!

Wikipedia calls Shostakovich's Symphony 14 an orchestral song cycle, but qualifies by adding, "to an extent."


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## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

I wouldn't advise getting too hung up on whether the _Symphony No. 14_ is symphony or a song cycle.

Mahler's _Das Lied von der Erde_ was described as a symphony when published, and it seems that in the centenary year of Mahler's birth, Bernstein it said it was Mahler's "Greatest symphony."

Before Shostakovich's _Symphony No.13_, then, symphony had already begun to be used in the older sense of the word...

_Sinfonia_
" (Italian f.) term applied in a variety of contexts in different periods; e.g. as a near synonym for 'instrumental canzona', 'prelude', 'overture',* and 'symphony*' " ~ Dolmetsch Dictionary of Music.


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## science (Oct 14, 2010)

brotagonist said:


> Wikipedia calls Shostakovich's Symphony 14 an orchestral song cycle, but qualifies by adding, "to an extent."


"Aha!" says the cocktail party bore, who designates himself "science" on the internet. "But to what extent? And where do you draw the line!"

Clearly he's had one green apple martini too many, maybe even two too many, or perhaps it was actually that third kir royal before he even got started on the green apple martinis, and now he's getting started on the caipirinhas. He's going to demand that we precisely - _very_ precisely! - define terms like "orchestral song cycle" and "symphony" and sort every phenomenon of human experience into those neat little boxes, and if we fail to achieve this, he might accidentally spill a Singapore Sling or a White Russian all over our finest duds.

Very probably, in fact.


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## Fugue Meister (Jul 5, 2014)

brotagonist said:


> I always thought it was supposed to be light and childlike. Shostakovich was said to have been inspired by Prokofiev's Symphony 7, which has sometimes been called the "Children's Symphony" (Wikipedia). I think I took it too literally, now that I read what Guardian columnist Tom Service had written. He says that Symphony 15 "belongs to the period of Shostakovich's darkest music." Talk about having missed the point  I'm going to have to listen to it in the next days!
> 
> Wikipedia calls Shostakovich's Symphony 14 an orchestral song cycle, but qualifies by adding, "to an extent."


If I had to say I think I agree with this Tom Service you reference. The more I listen to the 15th, the more I sense it to be part of a world of inner shadows Shostakovich was coming to terms with at the end of his life. The first movement is like a sinister toy shop (the toy shop reference is from DSCH himself although he conveniently left out "sinister") feigning childlike joy but seeping some unknown tensions.

The Adagio: Largo is discovering the doomed nature of what it is to be human and the soul's laments for the tragedy of death. Then on to accepting that time marches on and death inevitable I really sense Shosta's ultra sardonic sensibilities coming out with skepticism, as he's coming to terms with his fate.

The Allegretto starts with what reminds me of some sort of dance of death carried on by all his varied minions while crossing the river styx into the land of the dead. Perhaps too literal but thats what I've come to hear..

The Adagio: Allegretto is the most mysterious movement of the symphony and I've come to think of it as the struggles with one's mind to contemplate the unknown passing from what we know as this life. It moves back and forth between mysterious patches of calm and moments of gripping fear like focusing too much on the obliviousness of life as followed by nothingness. As it quiets down the mood of unsettling uncertainty as life slips away is maintained by the percussion eventually dying out never really finding any closure.

I draw a lot of my conclusions from my understanding of the composer himself who feared death fervently. His works from the last two years of life in particular are all punctuated by the bleakest patches of despair and melancholy. The beginning Allegretto of this symphony is very misleading IMO. I can only hope DSCH finally came to terms with his ending and may he rest in peace. 

His music still lives on and continues to challenge and reveal.


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## Guest (Aug 8, 2014)

His music is dead, and only the transmutation into autobiography and psychology that killed it lives on.

Many people over the years have translated music into something else so that they can deal with it. I just think it's a great pity is all. And Shostakovich is one of a handful of particularly unfortunate composers whose music can barely ever be listened to. Too much other stuff gets in the way.

The sounds, the notes and the rhythms and the motifs and the timbres and so forth get lost, buried under the mass of biographical and historical and political and psychological speculations that have proliferated since he was quite a young man.

But the music. What is the music like? Eventually, no one will ever know.


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## norman bates (Aug 18, 2010)

brotagonist said:


> I always thought it was supposed to be light and childlike.


with that second incredibly dark movement?


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## brotagonist (Jul 11, 2013)

Despite some guy's comment above, with which I tend to agree in general principle, although DSCH really does appear to be a special case, having apparently been quite a deep-thinking and remarkable individual, I think it is very helpful to recognize and understand the countless quotations he made in his works. This endeavour is well beyond my current ability, although I am learning more and more as my listening experience goes on.


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## Mahlerian (Nov 27, 2012)

Fugue Meister said:


> (Also sub-topic do you consider Shostakovich's 14 symphony really a symphony or would a song cycle be a better categorization of it?)


It's not in traditional symphonic form, but if Shostakovich wants to call it a symphony, he's fully entitled to do so.



PetrB said:


> Mahler's Das Lied von der Erde was described as a symphony when published, and it seems that in the centenary year of Mahler's birth, Bernstein it said it was Mahler's "Greatest symphony."


Yes, Mahler referred to it as a symphony, and originally called it his Ninth before removing the number and giving it the present title. It is not unlikely that superstition of ninth symphonies played a part in this, but if it did have a number, the work would be his only symphony not related to traditional symphonic form.


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## JACE (Jul 18, 2014)

To me, the Fifteenth always seemed like music that is breaking down, spinning apart, coming un-done. The fragmentation, the quotes, and the odd dis-junctions only add to the overall sense of irony and menace that was nearly always present in Shostakovich's music.

It's almost as if by the time you reach Shostakovich's last symphonies (particularly the Fifteenth), the form of the music -- and life itself? -- is breaking apart and is all jumbled up. (You see the same thing in his last string quartets too.)

The Fifteenth reminds me of an old person on the brink of death. There is no distinction between the past and the present. If anything, childhood recollections are more real than the present. All of the meaning is locked away, buried deep, inaccessible to everyone else. This person is truly alone. So, from the outside, everything sounds like a riddle -- or gibberish.

Of course, this is only how _I've_ understood this work. We'll never know exactly what Shostakovich intended! But isn't that true of all great art?


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

The 15th and the 5th are the only two Shostakovich symphonies I can tolerate.


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## JACE (Jul 18, 2014)

hpowders said:


> The 15th and the 5th are the only two Shostakovich symphonies I can tolerate.


Really? What do you dislike about the others?


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## Tristan (Jan 5, 2013)

Mahlerian said:


> It's not in traditional symphonic form, but if Shostakovich wants to call it a symphony, he's fully entitled to do so.
> 
> Yes, Mahler referred to it as a symphony, and originally called it his Ninth before removing the number and giving it the present title. It is not unlikely that superstition of ninth symphonies played a part in this, but if it did have a number, the work would be his only symphony not related to traditional symphonic form.


Plus, he could've had a completed 10th symphony and an unfinished 11th, that way there would have been no curse at all. Shouldn't have removed that number


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## drpraetorus (Aug 9, 2012)

The 15th is a tough nut. I think the Tom Service article is a good place to start. Also to be kept in mind is that at his time in his life not only was he trying to come to terms with his own mortality but he was also being seen by the younger generation as something of an old fuddy-duddy and not the cutting edge of Soviet music he had been. He had not gone the way of serialism. No tone rows. Just the same old Shostakovich. He is trying to show that he still has "it' what ever "it" is. We should also note the self quotations not just the Rossini or Wagner. I think the most important of the self quotes is the click-clacking at the end of the work. That is a direct quote from his 4th symphony. That symphony was the one that was withdrawn under intense pressure, almost on pain of death, from the Soviet government on orders of Stalin. The orchestra rehearsing it refused to continue and walked out of the rehearsal. This was at the time of his first denunciation by the government. The quotation seems to me to be a final symphonic jab at his old adversaries and a challenge to rising generation. Kind of saying "You know what I accomplished and what I faced. Now prove you can do better". It could also be something of a "Remember me" like the ghost of Hamlets father. 

One way to look at the 15th is to see it as a musical expression of what Burns was saying in the last stanzas of "To a Mouse".

But Mousie, thou are no thy-lane, 
In proving foresight may be vain: 
The best laid schemes o' Mice an' Men, 
Gang aft agley, 
An' lea'e us nought but grief an' pain, 
For promis'd joy! 

Still, thou art blest, compar'd wi' me! 
The present only toucheth thee: 
But Och! I backward cast my e'e, 
On prospects drear! 
An' forward, tho' I canna see, 
I guess an' fear!


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## drpraetorus (Aug 9, 2012)

To a Mouse


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

JACE said:


> Really? What do you dislike about the others?


Moodiness; interminably long slow movements that seem to lead nowhere. Otherwise, it's all great.

Simply my opinion. Listen to what you like.


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## JACE (Jul 18, 2014)

hpowders said:


> Simply my opinion. Listen to what you like.


I'm not trying to foist any opinions on anyone. Honest. 

I was just curious.


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## brotagonist (Jul 11, 2013)

If only Burns had been able to speak English  I think I'll fare much better with Shostakovich.


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

The 15th has been one of my favorite symphonies, by anybody, for a lot of years. It's deliberately ambiguous, but trying to sort this out is like asking what some of the Beatles' lyrics mean. Not a useful exercise! And it's tremendously evocative, but without evoking anything in particular.

It certainly has its gloomy moments, but I can't hear it as being overly dark, depressing, or having much to do with death. What's most striking about it, to me, are its variety and wealth of invention, its insanely ingenious scoring, and its many original aspects that can be found in all the movements. I never tire of this symphony, and enjoy its mysteries without trying to solve them.


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## MagneticGhost (Apr 7, 2013)

Back in the dim distant past - I seem to remember there being a link between this symphony and a rather superb short story by Chekhov; 'The Black Monk'. A story about Delusions of Grandeur, descent into madness, or possible real supernatural visitation. 
I read the story after I'd read of the possible link. There was nothing in the story that reminded me of the music. 
I may have read about it in Testimony, or it might have been the liner notes of the album.
Anyone else heard of this possibility?


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## Mandryka (Feb 22, 2013)

Here's a better recital of Robbie Burns's mouse


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

The 15th is for sure one of Shostakovich's more enigmatic works but I gave up some time ago wondering what it may have been all about and now I just listen to it for its own sake. Unlike the really late works such as the 15th string quartet, the viola sonata and the Michelangelo songs I would dismiss the idea of any kind of 'tombstone' aspects to it - DSCH still had about four years to live after completing it and was considering a 16th symphony before his final bout of ill-health intervened.

Edit (for Magnetic Ghost): I gather that DSCH was considering a vocal/operatic work based on The Black Monk - he apparently toyed with the idea on and off for years but was in all likelihood deterred by what kind of reception it might get: (the wounds from previous brickbats hadn't totally healed), but I wouldn't like to say whether the 15th symphony provided any kind of template for it or alluded to it.


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## Fugue Meister (Jul 5, 2014)

hpowders said:


> The 15th and the 5th are the only two Shostakovich symphonies I can tolerate.


Man what is not to like about the 10th, did you really give them a fair try.


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

MagneticGhost said:


> Back in the dim distant past - I seem to remember there being a link between this symphony and a rather superb short story by Chekhov; 'The Black Monk'. A story about Delusions of Grandeur, descent into madness, or possible real supernatural visitation.
> I read the story after I'd read of the possible link. There was nothing in the story that reminded me of the music.
> I may have read about it in Testimony, or it might have been the liner notes of the album.
> Anyone else heard of this possibility?


From Laurel Fay:

"In September 1972, Shostakovich finally became acquainted with the Leggenda Valacca (Angel's Serenade) by Gaetano Braga, a salon piece enormously popular around the turn of the century, the performance of which is specifically mentioned by Chekhov in "The Black Monk." Visiting with [Isaak] Glikman in Repino on 11 April 1973, Shostakovich told him that having undertaken to write an opera on Checkhov's story, he had had someone scout out the music for Braga's piece. He thought that it provided him with the kernel for his future opera. ... Whether he made any significant inroads on its composition before his death is unknown. What he did complete was the arrangement of Braga's "Serenade" for soprano, mezzo-soprano, violin (as specified in Chekhov's story), and piano."

From the SF Symphony's program notes to the 15th, speaking of _Testimony:
_
"Shostakovich also tells us that the music of his Fifteenth Symphony is tied to his plans for a project evidently unfinished-or perhaps not even begun-at the time of his death, and that is an opera based on Anton Chekhov's study of megalomania, The Black Monk. In the rambling conversations that make up Testimony, Shostakovich more than once alludes to The Black Monk as a work he is "determined to write"; he also makes it clear that, along with Mussorgsky, Chekhov-wry, unembarrassed, incorruptibly clearsighted, full of knowledge of the gray in life-was the artist who meant most to him and whose work, whose very style of existence, most surely sustained and nourished him."


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## Fugue Meister (Jul 5, 2014)

That's interesting I'll have to read up on this "the Black Monk", I'm not familiar with it... Thanks guys for bringing it to my attention.


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## SONNET CLV (May 31, 2014)

JACE said:


> To me, the Fifteenth always seemed like music that is breaking down, spinning apart, coming un-done. The fragmentation, the quotes, and the odd dis-junctions only add to the overall sense of irony and menace that was nearly always present in Shostakovich's music.
> 
> It's almost as if by the time you reach Shostakovich's last symphonies (particularly the Fifteenth), the form of the music -- and life itself? -- is breaking apart and is all jumbled up. (You see the same thing in his last string quartets too.)
> 
> The Fifteenth reminds me of an old person on the brink of death. There is no distinction between the past and the present. If anything, childhood recollections are more real than the present. All of the meaning is locked away, buried deep, inaccessible to everyone else. This person is truly alone. So, from the outside, everything sounds like a riddle -- or gibberish.





KenOC said:


> From the SF Symphony's program notes to the 15th, speaking of _Testimony:
> _
> "Shostakovich also tells us that the music of his Fifteenth Symphony is tied to his plans for a project evidently unfinished-or perhaps not even begun-at the time of his death, and that is an opera based on Anton Chekhov's study of megalomania, The Black Monk. In the rambling conversations that make up Testimony, Shostakovich more than once alludes to The Black Monk as a work he is "determined to write"; he also makes it clear that, along with Mussorgsky, Chekhov-wry, unembarrassed, incorruptibly clearsighted, full of knowledge of the gray in life-was the artist who meant most to him and whose work, whose very style of existence, most surely sustained and nourished him."


I have long listened to the remarkable Fifteenth not with the pages of Chekhov in my mind (that I do with Borodin), but of another Russian writer, one of my great favorites, Daniil Kharms. Kharms was an early Soviet-era surrealist poet, writer and dramatist, now considered a classic of the Russian absurd literature of the 1930s. He was arrested in 1941 on false charges, was "determined" to be insane and died of maltreatment and starvation in a psychiatric ward as St. Petersburg (then Leningrad) was besieged by the Nazis, in 1942. He came to be known for his children's literature. But my favorite works of Kharms are his short absurdist paragraph-like poems. They make no sense, but that is the point. The Soviet officials feared the very pointlessness of the poems, possibly believing they were some sort of revolutionary code. So much of Kharms's work and life story seems reflected in the Shostakovich Fifteenth. If we find the symphony confusing, that may be the entire point.

After a lifetime of struggle in his music (which is intriguing to study chronologically), Shostakovich seems to have arrived at the very place where Kharms operated from. Though primarily a writer of children's stories, Kharms's deeper and more profound work was absurdist poetry. I understand that one of the quotations in Shostakovich's Fifteenth cites the Rossini _William Tell _Overture, but I have long wondered if maybe Shostakovich wasn't utilizing that particular quote as a (by then familiar) "Lone Ranger" reference. Because he, and Kharms, too, were in significant ways Lone Rangers, masked men attempting to right wrongs in a corrupt society.

For those of you unfamiliar with Daniil Kharms, I will leave with five pieces by the Soviet absurdist, chosen for no particular reason or order. Perhaps they will better explain that connection I see to the Shostakovich Fifteenth, a cry about the madness of it all, a world where if one does not learn to laugh at the absurdity will drive one mad ... and yet a world where a sprig of optimistic light still shines, if only the madmen in control could be defeated and allow the soul of the people their freedom.

*The Artist and The Clock*
Serov, an artist, went to the Obvodny Canal. Why did he go there? To buy some india rubber. What did he want india rubber for? To make himself a rubber band. And what did he want a rubber band for? In order to stretch it. That's what for. And what else? This is what else: the artist Serov had broken his clock. The clock had been going well, but he picked it up and broke it. What else? Nothing else. Nothing, this is it, in a nutshell! Keep your filthy snout out when it's not needed! And may the lord have mercy on us! 
Once there lived an old woman. She lived and lived, until she got burnt up in her stove. Served her right, too! The artist Serov, at least, was of that opinion... 
Huh! I would write some more, but the ink-pot has suddenly gone and disappeared.

*I Had Raised Dust*
I had raised dust. Children were running after me, tearing their clothing. Old men and old women fell from roofs. I whistled, I roared, my teeth chattered and I clattered like an iron bar. Lacerated children raced after me and, falling behind, broke their thin legs in their awful haste. Old men and old women were skipping around me. I rushed on! Filthy, rachitic children, looking like toadstools, got tangled under my feet. Running was hard going. I kept remembering things and once I even almost fell into the soft mush of old men and women floundering on the ground. I jumped, snapped a few heads off toadstools and trod on the belly of a thin old woman, who at this emitted a loud crunch and softly muttered: -- They've worn me out. -- Not looking back, I ran on further. Now under my feet was a clean and smooth pavement. Occasional streetlamps lit my way. I ran up to the bath-house. The welcoming bath-house flickered in front of me and the cosy but stifling bathhouse steam was already in my nostrils, ears and mouth. Without undressing, I ran straight through the changing-room, then past the taps, the tubs and the planks, to the shelf. A hot white cloud surrounds me, I hear a weak but insistent sound. I seem to be lying down. 
And at this point, a mighty relaxation stopped my heart.

*Kalindov*
Kalindov was standing on tiptoe and peering at me straight in the face. I found this unpleasant. I turned aside but Kalindov ran round me and was again peering at me straight in the face. I tried shielding myself from Kalindov with a newspaper. But Kalindov outwitted me: he set my newspaper alight and, when it flared up, I dropped it on the floor and Kalindov again began peering at me straight in the face. Slowly retreating, I repaired behind the cupboard and there, for a few moments, I enjoyed a break from the importunate stares of Kalindov. But my break was not prolonged: Kalindov crawled up to the cupboard on all fours and peered up at me from below. My patience ran out; I screwed up my eyes and booted Kalindov in the face. 
When I opened my eyes, Kalindov was standing in front of me, his mug bloodied and mouth lacerated, peering at me straight in the face as before.

*The Optical Illusion* 
Semyon Semyonovich, with his glasses on, looks at a pine tree and he sees: in the pine tree sits a peasant showing him his fist. 
Semyon Semyonovich, with his glasses off, looks at the pine tree and sees that there is no one sitting in the pine tree. 
Semyon Semyonovich, with his glasses on, looks at the pine tree and again sees that in the pine tree sits a peasant showing him his fist. 
Semyon Semyonovich, with his glasses off, again sees that there is no one sitting in the pine tree. 
Semyon Semyonovich, with his glasses on again, looks at the pine tree and again sees that in the pine tree sits a peasant showing him his fist. 
Semyon Semyonovich doesn't wish to believe in this phenomenon and considers this phenomenon an optical illusion.

An Encounter 
On one occasion a man went off to work and on the way he met another man who, having bought a loaf of Polish bread, was going his way home. 
And that's just about all there is to it.


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## techniquest (Aug 3, 2012)

For me the 15th is a wonderful, mysterious piece that can say so many things: it's up to you how you choose to 'crack the nut'. 
As for the 14th; no I don't consider it a 'symphony' whatsoever, but Shostakovich did so that's the end of it I suppose. Personally I'd suggest that the Michelangelo songs are closer to a symphony than the 14th (and shares some ideas with the 15th), but the composer decided otherwise.


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

SONNET CLV said:


> I have long listened to the remarkable Fifteenth not with the pages of Chekhov in my mind (that I do with Borodin), but of another Russian writer, one of my great favorites, Daniil Kharms.


Thanks for the stories. Kharms is one strange dude!


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## shangoyal (Sep 22, 2013)

Listening to this work for the first time - sounds amazing.


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## ptr (Jan 22, 2013)

I thoroughly recommend Kurt Sanderling's version of this symphony (with the Cleveland Orchestra on Erato/Warner!), it is revealing of what this symphony is all about!

/ptr


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

I find Shostakovich's 15th to be one of his most accessible symphonies. What the heck it means? That's another story.


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## Guest (Aug 13, 2014)

While I don't find any of Shostakovich's symphonies to be inaccessible, except maybe the third, the 15th is easily my favorite.

That's from someone who is always making a big, *&(%&% deal about never having any favorites. It's textures are a lot lighter and cleaner than in other symphonies. It's remarkably free of Shostakovich cliches. It's mercurial and subtle.

Not sure about what I just said, though, as my two other almost most favorite symphonies are the fourth and the eighth. Maybe this whole favorite thing really is bunk!


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## EdwardBast (Nov 25, 2013)

some guy said:


> That's from someone who is always making a big, *&(%&% deal about never having any favorites. It's textures are a lot lighter and cleaner than in other symphonies. It's remarkably free of Shostakovich cliches. It's mercurial and subtle.


I agree and count it among my favorites too for the reasons you give. In fact, I always thought the Rossini quotation was intended to poke fun at one of his most persistent mannerisms, the overuse of anapestic rhythms (short-short-long). As a child, my younger brother, while hearing a Shostakovich work (I forget which) in which anapests were overabundant, remarked: "That man has a bad case of the rumpty-dumpties." It cracked me up.

My favorite is the Tenth, but the 15th is a close second.


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## Fugue Meister (Jul 5, 2014)

As mysterious as it is, it seems there are a lot of fans of the 15th here. I'm surprised some of you have even called it his most accessible symphony, I would say that is more for no.s 1, 5, 7, 9, 10... Very interesting.


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## Guest (Aug 14, 2014)

EdwardBast said:


> "That man has a bad case of the rumpty-dumpties." It cracked me up.


And now it has cracked me up as well.:tiphat:



EdwardBast said:


> My favorite is the Tenth, but the 15th is a close second.


Extraordinary. Aside from the third (which no one even mentions, ever) and the 14th (which no one listens to, ever), the tenth is my least favorite Shostakovich symphony. I've never liked it. It was the second symphony of his I heard, after the fifth. (Is the fifth still the first one people listen to? It was when I was a kid.) I quite liked the fifth. And the others that I heard next. The first, the fourth, the sixth, the ninth, the fifteenth. Each time I went back to it, though, it just pissed me off.

No one likes to admit this, least of all me, but there's obviously something wrong in my listening apparatus.

Not liking the seventh. That's never bothered me. Not liking the tenth bothers me, though. Why? I should like it. Well, we're none of us prefect.


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## ptr (Jan 22, 2013)

I used to be the biggest Shostakovich fan ever, but I can honestly say that I never warmed to the tenth symphony. I still rate the Fourth, Eight and Thirteenth higher the the Fifteenth, I even like the Fourteenth slightly better (in the Russian "Original" version, not the unidiomatic one with the poems in original languages).

I quite think that it is easy to get stuck on Shostakovich because of his non musical history and persona...

/ptr


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## Fugue Meister (Jul 5, 2014)

some guy said:


> And now it has cracked me up as well.:tiphat:
> 
> Extraordinary. Aside from the third (which no one even mentions, ever) and the 14th (which no one listens to, ever), the tenth is my least favorite Shostakovich symphony. I've never liked it. It was the second symphony of his I heard, after the fifth. (Is the fifth still the first one people listen to? It was when I was a kid.) I quite liked the fifth. And the others that I heard next. The first, the fourth, the sixth, the ninth, the fifteenth. Each time I went back to it, though, it just pissed me off.
> 
> ...


I just like to say I really enjoy the 14th, I think anyone with a morbid fascination with death would as well, especially if they were to read the translations of the individual songs. I really have a preference for darker music. I am with you on 3 though I've listened many times and it's very forced and seems like his heart wasn't in it.

Such a shame you can't find your way into the 10th it's a masterpiece. Hey it's cool I can't get into any Schumann or Liszt so it's just one of those things I suppose.


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## Richannes Wrahms (Jan 6, 2014)

'meh'

Sounds like a watered down neoclassical Stravinsky with some Prokofiev sprinkled on top and all in a 'La valse' mood, I'm not even a fan of that.


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## SONNET CLV (May 31, 2014)

Re: the Shostakovich 14th Symphony ...



some guy said:


> ... and the 14th (which no one listens to, ever) ...
> 
> ... but there's obviously something wrong in my listening apparatus.





Fugue Meister said:


> I just like to say I really enjoy the 14th, I think anyone with a morbid fascination with death would as well, especially if they were to read the translations of the individual songs.


Count me a fan of Shosty's 14th, which I listen to a couple times a year (as I do _all_ his symphonies). It has nothing to do with morbid fascinations with death, by the way. I_ do _admit to a fascination with music. And that is probably _all_ one needs to enjoy the Shostakovich oeuvre. (Of course, having a literary background, I also enjoy the poetry that creates the lyrics for the 14th.)


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## EDaddy (Nov 16, 2013)

To me his 15th sounds like a welling or culling (perhaps a summary?) of all the vast emotional experiences of the man's life as he was reflecting back on it. Some of it sounds deeply tragic, pain-drenched and regretful. Other parts sound playfully self-deprecating and humorous like with his use of numerous quotes.

I think the trick to listening to music, especially deep, complex music like Shostakovich's 15th, is learning to listen to it on it's own terms. It's so easy to impose one's own will on the music we listen to... the need to quantify, classify and analyze is so much a part of human nature. I often find I get the most out of my listening experiences when I am able to at least _temporarily_ suspend my judgments and analytical thought processes. Then the music will often really start to shine through. Not always easy to do though.


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