Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Shostakovich's 5th - Triumph or Tragedy?


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Posted by Rick Denney on February 15, 2001 at 14:54:24:

In Reply to: Re: Re: Re: Re: Shostakovich's 5th - Triumph or Tragedy? posted by Jay Bertolet on February 15, 2001 at 09:16:59:

The tricky bit, of course, is knowing what the composer intended. The standard practice for this symphony was developed before anyone knew about his ordeal with Stalin. You don't see a note before the fourth movement that says "take this part gruelingly slowly because I'm making a statement about the oppressive Soviet government that Stalin is too stupid to recognize."

He did give musical direction, and that is what should be followed. If he said "slow" then it should go slow. If he said "really slow" then it should go really slow.

While I utterly agree with Jay that we should take the music as it is written and not apply our audience's desires on it, I also wonder about this piece. It is wrong to assume that Stalin was a complete musical fool, and if the emotion of this work is made so obvious that every person in the audience would understand it, then Shostokovich would have been on the next train to the Gulag. The important concept is that it sounds "happy" superficially, but the disturbing part is buried in the architecture of the piece. If we try to make the parts that Shosty wanted to sound happy "grueling," then will remove the contrast between the two emotions that is at the heart of the symphony's irony.

Sometimes we are tempted to wear our emotions on our sleeves, but Shostakovich had to write music with a stiff upper lip.

Another example from radically different circumstances is the fourth symphony by Vaughan Williams. After playing it for Jay Rozen once, his response was "Man, the guy was really down when he wrote that..." But the emotion is built into the music, and doesn't require the conductor to open a vein or shoot himself on the podium. RVW's own conducting of this piece went blazingly fast. Clearly, though, Vaughan Williams was not interested in beauty; hence the famous quote, "I don't know whether I like it, but it is what I meant at the time" and "I know it looks wrong, and sounds wrong, but it is right."

So I totally agree with the principle that Jay presents, but not necessarily with how that should affect the finale of the Shotokovich 5th.

Rick "not that my opinion really matters, heh, heh" Denney


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