Dimitri Shostakovich worked during the Stalin eraold USSR. Some Russian composers left when the leaving was good;Shostakovich stayed. Of all the art forms that are subject to censorship,music is the hardest to censor because it is the most abstract art form(ok,maybe dance). DS's best known work is his 5th symphony. He had been attacked in print for being counter revolutionary. His response was to apologize. The 5th is social realisim;the critics,the party,and the people liked it.Unless you speak Russian,you might steer clear of his songs at first and concentrate on his symphonies and string quartets. He wrote in many different stlyes and died of old age. Happy listening.
Shostakovich...WHOA
An old g/f made a copy of a Shostakovich recording and until this week I’d never gotten around to it. MAN, is this guy giving me nightmares. I don’t know a damn thing about classical music but HOLY CHRISTMAS!
I can’t call up the old g/f to ask (I want to live, I want to live!) so I’m hoping someone can ID this recording and then offer suggestions to similar Shostakovich. I’m looking for brooding, scary, intense, hair-raising chaos…just like what’s-her-name.
The recording I was given has the following handwritten on it: “Kammersinfornie (after) string Quartet #8 & #10.” “1960” is also written on the recording with an arrow from it pointing to “Quartet #8.” The track most indicative of what I like is #2 whatever that is.
What’s this guy’s rep in the classical world, anyway? Maybe the style of this recording isn’t representative of his work.
As an interesting side note…this girl was always giving me really twisted material as witnessed by the title of the last book she gave me: “The Insanity of Normality – Realism as Sickness: Toward Understanding Human Destructiveness.” An army of red flags popped up with that one but I valiantly forged ahead with my little pea shooter anyway (please excuse the disgusting and humiliating metaphor.) I got clobbered.