Tag Archives: Shostakovich
Shostakovich Violin Concerto #1 and Symphony #11
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 17th May 2016Disc 8 of the Shostakovich series, conducted by Valery Gergiev, mentioned in my last post contains the performance of the above music recorded at the Salle Pleyel on February 18, 2014. The soloist is the the great Russian violinist Vadim Repin. The first violin concerto (opus 77) was written in 1947-8. It was dedicated to David Oistrakh…
› Read the full entry
Shostakovich Complete Symphonies and Concertos
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 14th May 2016Arthaus Musik has released an 8 disc DVD set of all the Shostakovich Symphonies and Concertos. Valery Gergiev, perhaps the best conductor of the Russian master now active, leads soloists and the Mariinsky Theater Orchestra and chorus in performances recorded at the Salle Pleyel in Paris. These recording were made in 2013/14. I just received…
› Read the full entry
Bolshoi Ballet: Taming of the Shrew
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 24th January 2016The Bolshoi Ballet’s production of The Taming of the Shrew was telecast in HD at theaters around the world this afternoon. Loosely based on Shakespeare’s least politically correct play (at least for now) The Taming of the Shrew, the choreography was by Jean-Christophe Maillot. The dancing was set to about 25 pieces by Dmitri Shostakovich….
› Read the full entry
Shostakovich – Michelangelo Suite
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 13th May 2015Michelangelo (1475-1564), in addition to dominating renaissance art, wrote more than 300 sonnets and madrigals. Dmitri Shostakovich (1906-75) set 11 of the sonnets to music shortly before he died. The Michelangelo Suite was originally written for bass and piano (op 145). Shostakovich then orchestrated the songs (op 145a) making the piece even more powerful and…
› Read the full entry
Shostakovich: The Nose
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 4th May 2015Below is a complete performance of Shostakovich’s first opera The Nose. I have previously written about he opera – here. As I mentioned in that earlier post the opera needs to be seen to be fully appreciated. This 1979 staging has English subtitles. The 21 year old composer’s exuberance explodes off of the stage. The orchestral…
› Read the full entry
Illicit Love
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 20th April 2015Opera abounds in love duets. Here are three that define both their genre and their time. All three involve a man (a tenor, of course) in love, or in lust in the last example, with another man’s wife. Verdi’s Un Ballo in Maschera and Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde were written about the same time – the…
› Read the full entry
Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk – Amsterdam 2006
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 29th March 2015Written when the composer was only 26, Shostakovich’s Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk is the greatest opera written after the death of Puccini. It’s combination of satire, suffering, audacity, energy, inspired vulgarity, and youthful abandon make it unique on the lyric stage. Add to this perhaps the most brilliant score ever written for the theater and you…
› Read the full entry
Cleveland Orchestra Plays Beethoven and Shostakovich in Miami
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 1st March 2015Not surprisingly the Cleveland Orchestra spends part of the winter in Miami. On Saturday evening February 28 the band, led by its Music Director Franz Welser-Möst, played Beethoven’s 5th Symphony followed after the intermission by Shostakovich’s 10th Symphony. The venue was the Knight Concert Hall. They had played the same composers’ 3rd and 6th symphonies…
› Read the full entry
The Nose in HD
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 26th October 2013The nose know what the nose knows Jimmy Durante Dmitri Shostakovich’s first opera, The Nose, was telecast today. Written when the composer was 21 years old. It is an extraordinary work that can only make its point when seen. It’s a tour de force heavily influenced by Berg’s Wozzeck. It is a combination of Arnold…
› Read the full entry
Shostakovich Plays Shostakovich
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 15th September 2011Dmitri Shostakovich (1906 – 1975) is primarily known as the greatest composer born in the 20th century; though he started out as a pianist. He largely gave up playing to concentrate on composing when he was very young. But later in life he did occasionally perform as piano soloist, though only playing his own compositions. The current Recording…
› Read the full entry
