Word: shostakoviches
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TESTIMONY: THE MEMOIRS OF DMITRI SHOSTAKOVICH...
...Shostakovich: Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk (Soprano Galina Vishnevskaya, Tenor Nicolai Gedda, Bass Dimiter Petkov, Ambrosian Opera Chorus, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Mstislav Rostropovich conductor, Angel; 3 LPs). Soviet critics thought they heard a masterpiece when this, Shostakovich's second opera, was premiered in 1934. Then Stalin walked out of a performance and they listened again. This time they heard "din, gnash and screech" (Pravda). The work was withdrawn, and Shostakovich pursued more orthodox ways. A sanitized version, unveiled in 1963, found its way to the West on records, but this is the first recording of the original score. Harsh, erotic...
...England conservatory Wind Ensemble--works of Stravinsky, Rodrigo, Hindemith, and Shostakovich; Jordan Hall...
...slyly as if he were pulling a rabbit from his hat, Stoppard has written a play as propaganda, and its anti-Soviet message is all the more effective for its wit and humor. Andre Previn's music, which he himself conducted, is equally witty. Hinting at Prokofiev and Shostakovich, Previn underlines Stoppard's words and adds his own notes of satire. When Alexander, for instance, says that confinement will at least allow him time to read War and Peace, the orchestra mocks him with a rousing bar from Tchaikovsky's 1812 overture. When the colonel in charge...
...asking that a tank be built with the money. From the start of his career in the 1930s, he also involved himself with Communist Party politics, eventually becoming deputy chairman of the Union of Soviet Composers. His political stature crumbled in 1948, however, when together with Composers Dmitri Shostakovich and Sergei Prokofiev he was condemned by the par ty's Central Committee for works that "smelled strongly of the spirit of bourgeois music of Europe and America." Khachaturian apologized publicly and regained Soviet favor firmly enough to visit Washington, D.C., in 1968, conducting his own work and using...