# Shostakovich plays Shostakovich



## BenG (Aug 28, 2018)

I just came across a youtube video of Shostakovich playing his piano concerto no. 2 and it's insanely
fast - compared to every other interpretation. I am curious to see what you think of his playing.


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## consuono (Mar 27, 2020)

Well, it's his work so I guess that has to be the benchmark in a way. I've also listened to the video of his playing some of his preludes and fugues.


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## Fabulin (Jun 10, 2019)

Is there any recording with him conducting one of his concert pieces?


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## MrMeatScience (Feb 15, 2015)

Fabulin said:


> Is there any recording with him conducting one of his concert pieces?


Not that I've ever come across. From what I've read, he wasn't too keen on conducting. There's lots of him playing piano on various works of his, though.


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## Heck148 (Oct 27, 2016)

BenG said:


> I just came across a youtube video of Shostakovich playing his piano concerto no. 2 and it's insanely
> fast - compared to every other interpretation. I am curious to see what you think of his playing.


Not bad, he got better as he went along...some smudgy passagework in the first movement...the tempos are not excessively fast...I've performed it faster-mvt I - but taken at a good clip


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## Coach G (Apr 22, 2020)

Fabulin said:


> Is there any recording with him conducting one of his concert pieces?


Not that I know of, but the composer's son Maxim Shostakovich made a very fine rendition of the 15th Symphony with the Moscow Radio and Television Orchestra. I have it on vinyl. Last I checked it's only release on CD is as part of some really overpriced box set. Maxim did the other symphonies, I think with the Czech Philharmonic, but I haven't heard it, also very expensive.


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## SONNET CLV (May 31, 2014)

BenG said:


> I just came across a youtube video of Shostakovich playing his piano concerto no. 2 *and it's insanely
> fast* - compared to every other interpretation. I am curious to see what you think of his playing.


Insanely fast? Well, imagine that your experience was that the secret police were pounding at the door and you wanted to finish the piece you were playing before they broke in and hauled your a** off to the gulag. That might motivate a player to punch those keys insanely fast.

I've long enjoyed the Shosty Second Piano Concerto, much moreso than the First. That second movement is one of the loveliest and most moving pieces in the composer's oeuvre.


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## Heck148 (Oct 27, 2016)

SONNET CLV said:


> I've long enjoyed the Shosty Second Piano Concerto, much moreso than the First. That second movement is one of the loveliest and most moving pieces in the composer's oeuvre.


Yes, it's a neat piece, and fun to play...I much prefer it to the First...I esp like the 7/8 parts of mvt III....Really dances right along...beautiful slow movement. Of course, the whole piece begins with a bassoon solo, so it's off to a great start!!


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## annaw (May 4, 2019)

Coach G said:


> Not that I know of, but the composer's son Maxim Shostakovich made a very fine rendition of the 15th Symphony with the Moscow Radio and Television Orchestra. I have it on vinyl. Last I checked it's only release on CD is as part of some really overpriced box set. Maxim did the other symphonies, I think with the Czech Philharmonic, but I haven't heard it, also very expensive.


Maxim Shostakovich has also a wonderful recording of the two cello concerti which I really enjoyed!


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## Flamme (Dec 30, 2012)

A virtuoso...Imho.


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## Enthusiast (Mar 5, 2016)

He was a noted pianist in his younger days - reputedly one of the best of his generation.


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## SONNET CLV (May 31, 2014)

Heck148 said:


> ...Of course, the whole piece begins with a bassoon solo, so it's off to a great start!!


Could this be a Shostakovich "nod" to Stravinsky's _Rite of Spring_? The concerto was apparently written for Shosty's son, and it seems to be music of spring, albeit a different sort of spring from Stravinsky's sacrificial one. More a spring of delight and promise. Even that opening bassoon solo is quirkily upbeat.


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## Heck148 (Oct 27, 2016)

SONNET CLV said:


> Could this be a Shostakovich "nod" to Stravinsky's _Rite of Spring_? The concerto was apparently written forrse Shosty's son, and it seems to be music of spring, albeit a different sort of spring from Stravinsky's sacrificial one. More a spring of delight and promise. Even that opening bassoon solo is quirkily upbeat.


The solos are quite different, of course...both composers loved the bassoon and wrote great, and challenging parts for it. I really love this concerto..it's short, but substantial, and really hangs together.


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## SONNET CLV (May 31, 2014)

Heck148 said:


> The solos are quite different, of course....


True. But perhaps the attempt was not to be too overt. I mean, Shostakovich could have opened the piece with a double bass or tuba or bass clarinet, whatever. If he penned that opening with a slight smile, he may not have wanted it to be similar. It may have been a personal touch. He may have felt his son is his personal offering to the world, a celebration of spring -- Maxim was born in the spring, May 10. The Second Concerto was composed in 1957 for his son Maxim's 19th birthday and perhaps his music school graduation, another usually spring event. Maxim premiered the work at his conservatory. Apparently, the final movement features a passage "in 'Hanon' exercise mode, with scales in sixths and semiquaver runs, this being the joke for Maxim's graduation,' according to Wikipedia. Who knows what other inside jokes are included in the piece. I'm purely speculating here, but as a father and grandfather I know that I've sneaked personal intentions into poems and playscripts I've written, things no one but me and one or two others might smile at knowingly. I suspect Shostakovich was human, too -- though of a more "advanced" form mentally/musically.

In any case, the Concerto remains a favorite of mine.


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## Heck148 (Oct 27, 2016)

SONNET CLV said:


> True. But perhaps the attempt was not to be too overt. I mean, Shostakovich could have opened the piece with a double bass or tuba or bass clarinet, whatever. If he penned that opening with a slight smile, he may not have wanted it to be similar. It may have been a personal touch..........
> In any case, the Concerto remains a favorite of mine.


Yes, could be, tho I don't know for sure...it's certainly a perky little solo that gets things off to a good start....
I wish that Shostakovich had written a bassoon concerto - that could have been awesome....some of his early works - Sym #4, and earlier, contain splendid bassoon parts, really colorful...the later works do to of course, and are better known....but DS had a real feel for the instrument.


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## EdwardBast (Nov 25, 2013)

Heck148 said:


> Yes, could be, tho I don't know for sure...it's certainly a perky little solo that gets things off to a good start....
> I wish that Shostakovich had written a bassoon concerto - that could have been awesome....some of his early works - Sym #4, and earlier, contain splendid bassoon parts, really colorful...the later works do to of course, and are better known....but *DS had a real feel for the instrument*.


Yes he did. And all of the other ones too.


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## Heck148 (Oct 27, 2016)

EdwardBast said:


> Yes he did. And all of the other ones too.


Yes, Shostakovich was a great orchestrator, very imaginative...his early works, before and up to Sym #4 and Lady Macbeth, are very colorfully, flamboyantly orchestrated....


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