Word: shostakoviches
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...Bach Society Orchestra met that test in its first concert of the season giving Yo-Yo Ma '76 the backing he deserved during a performance of the first cello concerto by Shostakovich. Under the baton of Neal Stulberg '76, this year's conductor, the potentially fragmented composition jelled into a continuous musical statement. The orchestra nimbly bridged the dangerous gaps between the cello passages and those sections played by the group; instead of pouncing on its entrances and destroying the soft, quiet effect produced by Ma in the second movement, the orchestra picked up where he left off and matched...
That official disapproval must have been particularly cruel irony, since Shostakovich had been a rallying point and something of a hero for Russians in World War II. In 1942 his Seventh Symphony was played at a concert in Moscow. Through the thunder of kettledrums in the symphony's last movement, the wail of air-raid sirens was heard, but no one left the hall. With the final burst of dazzling sound the audience sprang to its feet and gave a long ovation to the pale, gaunt composer...
...nature, Shostakovich was a reticent man. He was born in St. Petersburg, the son of a chemist. In a rare interview, he said that the most powerful memory of his childhood was hanging around outside a neighbor's door when the man was practicing music. To make money while studying at the Leningrad Conservatory, he tried playing the piano for silent films. Unfortunately he was too busy watching the screen to pay attention to the score. He was sacked...
...question will always remain how much his political buoyancy affected his music. As his contemporary Vladimir Nabokov pointed out, it is a wretched thing for an artist to leave his homeland and his native sounds, whether musical or verbal. Perhaps because Shostakovich had to bend his inspiration to the will of the state, the quality of his work varies widely. There are, however, his passages of genuine beauty, crisp wit and sheer energy of genius. For those, it is impossible to name a successor...
Died. Dmitri Shostakovich, 69, preeminent Soviet composer; of heart disease; in Moscow (see Music...