Shostakovich titled the last movement burlesca, an indication that fits the musics darkly comic atmosphere. Find composition details, parts movement information and albums that contain performances of violin concerto no. Authoritative performances marred by unhelpful recorded balance musicians. David oistrakh violin concerto no 1 shostakovich youtube. Dylana jenson violin london symphony orchestradavid lockington composer.
Shostakovich was a 20thcentury russian composer who wrote primarily in this romantic idiom and was heavily influenced by mahler. World war ii had distracted stalins government from show trials and purges, leaving artists slightly less harassed than usual. Stradivari violins of the late 1720s have a certain rugged charm. Artistic influence, stylistic irony, and musical reference in dmitri shostakovich. I dont know how it is for real musicologists, but for me shostakovichs music breaks into four periods. Leonidas kavakos is performing the shostakovich violin concerto with the lso on 8 april 2015. After the death of stalin in 1953, there was a gradual relaxation of the persecution of soviet artists. The disc contains outstanding performances of the shostakovich violin concerto, op. It was written in 1967, twenty years after the concerto no. Both soloists are in their prime and sonys remastering of the tapes provides the best sound these performances have yet received. Shostakovichs second violin concerto was written for a birthday, the great soviet violinist david oistrakhs 60th. Recorded november 8, 1959 at the broadwood hotel, philadelphia. Everyday low prices and free delivery on eligible orders. Hilary hahn, violin berliner philarmoniker mariss jansons, conductor shostakovich.
You can read our critically acclaimed program notes online one week prior to select concerts. Dmitri dmitriyevich shostakovich 25 september 1906 9 august 1975 orchestra. He was still working on the piece at the time of the. Eugene ormandy conducting the philadelphia orchestra. The concerto in c minor for piano, trumpet, and string orchestra, op. Intended as the composers present for oistrakhs sixtieth birthday it seems that shostakovich was a year too early.
Violinist nicola benedetti has just recorded shostakovich s mindblowing first violin concerto the album is available to buy now on decca. In the time between the works initial completion and the first performance, the composer, sometimes with the collaboration. The concerto was an experimentation with a neobaroque combination of instruments. But anniversary celebrations couldnt be further from this troubled soundworld. The concerto was premiered on 15 october 1933 in the season opening concerts of the leningrad philharmonic orchestra with shostakovich at the piano, fritz. Shostakovich resists the tradition of wowing the audience with a cadenza, instead using the cadenza as an opportunity to create an entirely new movement that bridges the emotional. Violin solo, piano reduction sheet music book by dmitri shostakovich 19061975.
By 1955 when the composer was 50, under the more relaxed regime of nikita khrushchev, compositions that had been hidden away for fear of disciplinary actions were beginning to emerge. It was premiered unofficially in bolshevo, near moscow, on september 1967, and officially on 26 september by oistrakh and the moscow philharmonic under kirill kondrashin in moscow. Orchestra, violin sheet music book by dmitri shostakovich 19061975. The wide emotional range of its fourmovement structure encompasses an opening of brooding, elegiac melancholy, a manic. And then the melody that i told you about, remember the violins playing. As with his disc of berg and britten concertos, daniel hope here delivers penetrating and intense performances. This concerto is less a showpiece than a deep journey, the type of journey that is not dissimilar to shostakovichs 5th symphony.
Shostakovich david oistrakh, new philharmonia orchestra, conductor maxim shostakovich. Artistic influence, stylistic irony, and musical reference. Dmitri dmitrievich sat down at the piano and played the score with a virtuosity which itself would have been. Together with the bournemouth symphony orchestra and conductor kirill karabits, the dark, introspective shostakovich violin concerto is brought to life in a compelling performance packed. Nicola benedetti tells us why shostakovichs violin. He was still working on the piece at the time of the zhdanov decree, and in the period following the composers denunciation it could not be performed.
As many know, shostakovich wrote two violin concertos. Shostakovich concertosoistrakhbbc c classics today. Used with london symphony, vienna philharmonic and boston symphony. We asked her to talk us through a work that she says is totally overwhelming the first time you encounter it. David oistrach plays shostakovich, violin concerto no. Shostakovich wrote the work for his friend mstislav rostropovich, who. In the first concerto he draws the listener into the atmosphere of each movement from the very outset the bleak landscape of the nocturne, the savage mockery of the scherzo, the combination of nobility and worldweariness in the passacaglia and the manic abandon of.
Particularly fine is the second violin concerto, the more wayward, problematic work, in which kaler relishes the key role given to the cadenzas, which, as the bookletnotes point out carry great emotional and structural weight not as display episodes, but as intensification, as urgent, intimate discussion of the material. David oistrakh, violin leningrad philharmonic orchestra yevgeni mravinsky repertoire note shostakovichs first violin concerto is one of the most enduringly popular of all 20th century concertos, a work combining astonishing virtuosity and brilliance with dark and sinister drama, and a tremendous, almost filmic breadth of imagery. The two shostakovich violin concertos hardly suffer from lack of excellent modern recordings, as ilya kaler naxos, lydia mordkovitch chandos, dimitry sitkovetsky virgin, and several other first rate soloists cogently prove. But in the case of this 1957 broadcast of shostakovichs violin concerto no. In the time between the works initial completion and the first performance, the composer, sometimes with the collaboration of its. So many of todays violin concerto recordings sound artificial because of their spotlit miking of the violin, making it sound gargantuan in relation to the orchestra. Shostakovich wrote the work for his friend mstislav rostropovich, who committed it to memory in four days and gave the premiere on october 4, 1959, with yevgeny mravinsky conducting the leningrad philharmonic orchestra in the large hall of the leningrad. Its mad, virtuoso fiddle music brings the concerto to an unsettling, but thrilling conclusion. The shostakovich release pays tribute to the 100th anniversary of shostakovichs birth and is a natural followup to hopes bergbritten concertos cd. Shostakovich violin concerto no 1 benedetti youtube. It is considered among the most difficult pieces in the cello repertoire.
Shostakovichs final concerto, the violin concerto no2. Sensational violinist nicola benedetti returns with a riveting recording of shostakovichs monumental violin concerto no. His lowest moments came in 1936, when he was denounced for his. Violin concerto no 1 in a minor, op 99 by dmitri shostakovich david oistrakh, violin staatskapelle berlin heinz fricke, conductor berlin 1967. He wrote it in the spring of 1967 as an early 60th birthday present for its dedicatee, david oistrakh. The classic recording of it 1956 is the one played by david oistrakh with dmitri mitropoulos conducting the new york philharmonic, a brilliant performance released on sony. But his work list suggests two separate versions of the first, the op. Shostakovich david oistrakh, new philharmonia orchestra, conductor maxim shostakovich concerto no. Cello concerto no 1 in e flat major dmitry shostakovich. He is known for playing the abergavenny stradivari of 1725 and more recently the venus. Find classical music concert listings shostakovich by.