Dark & Stormy...

​Last night, by chance, and late, I ended up watching a documentary about Shostakovich and his 7th Symphony (‘Leningrad’) – http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b06vkbcs - an incredible story about famine, totalitarianism and the power of music. I’ve been a fan of Shost’s music since I was a music student: I played a couple of Preludes as a young teenager, before I really knew anything about the man and his music – but their chromatic ‘weirdness’ and their intensity was enough to keep me interested at that time… then we studied the 5th Symphony at A level, and I gained new understandings and insights. I have Andy K to thank for introducing me to more of his music at Uni… It was there too that I first heard the 8th Quartet, played by a quartet of fellow students, and its bleak beauty in the light of the context of its creation struck me to the core. How ironic then that that very work should end up on the Edexcel A Level syllabus that I taught to several cohorts of students over the years – a privilege to introduce others to that amazing work… I always delivered those sessions with a lump in my throat and tears in my eyes, as the power of the music was undeniable.
Anyhow… Shost’s music has been on the piano stand at Aphelion Towers of late – I’m planning to include a couple of the op.87 preludes and fugues in my All Saints concert, if time permits to ‘get them down’ enough (I’ll be lucky!!). So how come the ‘timely’ Shostakovich on telly? And the recent release of Julian Barnes’ acclaimed new novel ‘The Noise of Time’, a ‘fiction’ about Shostakovich and the ugly situation in which he found himself, being compelled to join the Communist Party and kowtow to Stalin against his artistic and moral judgement? Is there an anniversary I’m not aware of? Dunno, but now seems as good a time as any to be listening to his music. It carries messages of despair & hope, it can be ugly and utterly beautiful… it is always carefully crafted and cleverly deploys compositional techniques familiar to lovers of Bach and Beethoven whilst being totally of it’s own time. It’s very ‘Cold War’ but hey, what times are we living in now if not ‘war’ and a very ‘cold’ one at that? For those who have yet to meet his music, my recommendations would be –

The Piano Quintet – amazing compositional technique and graceful symmetries, eg; in the final few movements. Symphony #5 – from the Soviet bombast of the Finale to the unsettling yet heart-mangling angst in the 3rd movement; String Quartet #8 – dedicated to ‘the victims of fascism & war’ and written after witnessing the destruction of Dresden (supposedly as a final letter before committing suicide, which he didn’t do!); and piano pieces – the ones I tend to play are the same two Preludes (op. 34, written in the winter of 1932/3) that I played all those years back as an intrigued teenager under the watchful ear of Mary K Stevens – nos. 7 & 14 - and Prelude & Fugue 1 and 4 from op.87 (although Prelude 5 and 12 are favourites to play too) – rather more involved and it’s these that I have in mind for All Saints. All Shost’s music have those windy, never-ending chromatic melodies that unsettle and seem so evocative of Cold War uncertainty and paranoia; and he also has a ‘motif’, DSCH (Dmitri Schostakovich!) that he uses as a compositional basis for a lot of his music, making it almost a 4-dimensional puzzle for those who enjoy seeking out and analysing the music…

I’ve also been impressed recently by the playing of Valentina Lisitsa, who plays a lot of Shost’s music. Have a listen to her rendition of his Piano Sonata 2 – make sure that you read the lengthy and impassioned ‘sleeve note’ on the Youtube posting.
​
A final word: Dmitri Shostakovich’s musical inheritors in the next generation included Alfred Schnittke and Galina Ustvolskaya, both now deceased (already!). The music of both these composers is amazing – challenging, yes; radical, yes; powerful, certainly. For pianists, fiendish. But worth checking out: it’s a dark and lonely journey, but one well worth making.