Shosty’s Symphony No. 4
July 8th, 2007 Posted in classical music, shostakovich, youtube
Blah blah blah Shostakovich. A while ago I was wondering if this piece was going to move off of my “monopolizing mp3 listening time” and onto my “top x favorites of all time” list. Well, it’s pretty much there I reckon. Here’s a youtubefied bit of probably my favorite section from the last movement:
[YOUTUBE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lCS2OI4j2LM[/YOUTUBE]
I think it’s Gergiev and the LSO. The playing is a bit dry and uninspired sounding in a couple places (particularly the stringy section which goes on for a few minutes before the huge old banging climax) but it’s a pretty decent rendition. I like my Rostropovich version better though.
I love the first section in particular. It’s flitty and flighty and playful right at the start, and almost lets itself get out of control – but then there is that wonderfully ominous interruption about 12 seconds in, which then fades back into a ridiculously lighthearted bassoon theme. The section which follows is then a sort of loose and messy bunch of variations on that cheeky bassoon section. Then, after a couple of minutes of this (at about 2:05, and again at about 5:50) it switches gear into a weird circusy sort of waltz. Fantastic (and schizophrenic) stuff.
When you listen to the whole symphony this section is smack in the middle of the last movement, which comes in at almost 30 minutes. This is a frickin’ huge symphony. The first movement is almost the same length, and the middle one is an additional 10 minutes. It’s a huge orchestra as well. I’d love to see this one live.
I remember the first time I listened to this I thought all the mood changes sounded completely stupid, and that the playful bits were completely over the top and out of place. Now after listening to it repeatedly I think their out of place, contrasty nature makes it even better. It’s funny how that works out. Often the things which seem most appealing at first end up fizzling out very quickly, whereas the uncomfortable, unappealing stuff ends up growing on you.
The rest of the symphony is on youtube at (broken up because youtube can’t handle videos longer than 10 minutes):
1st movement: 1 2 3 (third part includes start of 2nd movement)
2nd movement: 1 (includes start of third movement)
