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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.
kublakhan
matchstikman
205 posts
 
Hmmm, interesting. I may just check this out. I just got into Bruckner a few months ago and I had never heard of him, either.

By the way, your ex-girlfriend sounds like one of my ex-girlfriends. She was dark, maudlin, but extremely intelligent. It was a rocky relationship, but never a dull moment.
pragmatist
336 posts
 
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.
cpdunn99's avatar
cpdunn99
639 posts
 
Kublakhan,

Sorry, but I'm laughing so hard that I can't respond to your query!!!!!! ROFLMAO!!!
kublakhan OP
717 posts
 
Cpdunn99, I guess you're laughing at the g/f stuff. I don't blame you and look forward to the day I can join in. I would have thought for a woman as smart as she her vocabulary would have provided alternatives to the word 'stupid' but not so. She was, however, intelligent enough to make proper use of it four or five times in single sentences, although only when addressing me for some reason. It was remarkable. I’ll say this, she made some valid points.

Thanks guys, for the info; how about recommendations for specific orchestras and conductors? Ebay has a few 11 cd sets of the complete symphonies conducted by 'Barshai' (?) and they're only going for $30. Why so cheap? Is this something to stay away from? I noticed a Keith Jarrett recording of Shostakovich and got excited until I read some horrible reviews (I love Jarrett's own stuff.) I always need to be careful with classical music: Yo-Yo Ma almost turned me off of the cello for good until I heard Pablo Casals. No offense to Yo-Yo fans out there, what do I know? Just my taste. Really out of my element here.
gregm
3,397 posts
 
Hi Kubla - try the Borodin Quartet/ S Richter (on EMI) for the Shostakovich Quartets. It's still the best ref, IMO.
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