by Anton Wachmann
This piece is absolutely incredible! The way that Shostakovich can put notes so close to being dissonant and then create something this beautiful! The piece was written shortly after two traumatic events in the life of the composer: the first presentation of debilitating muscular weakness that would eventually be diagnosed as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, and his reluctant joining of the Communist Party. According to the score, it is dedicated “to the victims of fascism and war”; his son, Maxim, interprets this as a reference to the victims of all totalitarianism, while his daughter Galina says that he dedicated it to himself, and that the published dedication was imposed by the Russian authorities. Shostakovich’s friend, Lev Lebedinsky, said that Shostakovich thought of the work as his epitaph and that he planned to commit suicide around this time. The first movement opens with the DSCH motif which was Shostakovich’s musical signature. This slow, extremely sad theme can also be heard in his Cello Concerto No. 1, Symphony No. 10, Violin Concerto No. 1, Symphony No. 15, and Piano Sonata No. 2. The motif is used in every movement of this quartet, and is the basis of the faster theme of the third movement. The work is filled with quotations of other pieces by Shostakovich: the first movement quotes his Symphony No. 1 and Symphony No. 5; the second movement uses a Jewish theme first used by Shostakovich in his Piano Trio No. 2; the third movement quotes the Cello Concerto No. 1; and the fourth movement quotes the 19th century revolutionary song “Tormented by Grievous Bondage” and the aria Seryozha, my love from Shostakovich’s opera, Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District. The fifth contains a play upon a motif also from Lady Macbeth. It has been transcribed by Rudolf Barshai for string orchestra, in which version it is known as Chamber Symphony in C minor (Op. 110a). by Anton Wachmann I again was listening to music in my car wile I was driving back from a rehearsal and this is what i found out about this beautiful piece! Stanford was born in Dublin, the only son of John James Stanford and his second wife, Mary, née Henn. John Stanford was a prominent Dublin lawyer, Examiner to the Court of Chancery in Ireland and Clerk of the Crown for County Meath. His wife was the third daughter of William Henn, Master of the High Court of Chancery in Ireland. Both parents were accomplished amateur musicians; John Stanford was a cellist. Stanford immersed himself in the musical life of the university to the detriment of his Latin and Greek studies. He composed religious and secular vocal works, a piano concerto, and incidental music for Longfellow’s play A Spanish Student. In November 1870 he appeared as piano soloist with the Cambridge University Musical Society, and quickly became its assistant conductor and a committee member. The society had declined in excellence since its foundation in 1843. Returning to Cambridge in the intervals of his studies in Germany, Stanford had resumed his work as conductor of CUMS. He found the society in good shape under his deputy, Eaton Faning, and able to tackle demanding new works. In 1876 the society presented one of the first performances in Britain of the Brahms Requiem. In 1877 CUMS came to national attention when it presented the first British performance of Brahms’s First Symphony. During the same period, Stanford was becoming known as a composer. He was composing prolifically, though he later withdrew some of his works from these years, including a violin concerto which, according to Rodmell, suffered from “undistinguished thematic material.” In 1875 his First Symphony won the second prize in a competition held at the Alexandra Palace for symphonies by British composers, although he had to wait a further two years to hear the work performed. In the same year Stanford directed the first performance of his oratorio The Resurrection, given by CUMS. At the request of Alfred Tennyson, he wrote incidental music for Tennyson’s drama Queen Mary, performed at the Lyceum Theatre, London in April 1876. by Anton Wachmann I was listening again to the radio on the way back from a rehearsal, and it was amazing! After doing some research I found this out. Benjamin Britten’s Violin Concerto, Op. 15, was written from 1938 to 1939. It was premiered in New York, on 29 March 1940 by the Spanish violinist Antonio Brosa with the New York Philharmonic conducted by John Barbirolli. A revised version of the concerto appeared in the 1950s, including alterations of the solo violin part prepared with the assistance of Manoug Parikian. The work opens with a series of timpani strokes, a reminder perhaps of Beethoven’s Violin Concerto. The rhythm is taken up by the bassoon and other instruments, persisting as an ostinato throughout the entire work. The violin enters with a song-like lament, soaring above the orchestra. The music is soon interrupted by a more militaristic and percussive secondary theme. The ensuing second movement, cast as a wild, moto perpetuo scherzo, unmistakably recalls Prokofiev. The movement culminates in an impressive cadenza which, while recalling musical material from both the first and second movements, acts as an organic link straight into the finale. As the finale, Britten uses a passacaglia : a set of variations on a ground bass, in the tradition of the Baroque chaconnes by Purcell and Bach. The ground bass, tonally unstable, is initially introduced by the trombone, as the violin recalls its lyrical theme from the first movement. Individual variations unfold, taking up characters of song, dance, capriccio and march. By the end, the ground bass is reduced to chant-like reminiscences; the orchestra leaves hints of an unmistakable D major chord, while the soloist is left undecided in a trill between the notes F-natural and G flat. “Benjamin Britten’s concerto is arguably the most challenging to play on this collection and the most sobering work here, and shows another side of Shaham’s musical personality. A work with a martial-like drama, and for the most part a forceful, bordering on violent, execution of the work unfolds, interspersed – where called for – by an ethereal sound world bordering on the surreal. The tonal ambiguity at the end of the third movement is positively haunting. In concert, the Chicago Classical Review noted “This is music that fits Gil Shaham like a well-tailored glove.” – http://www.prestoclassical.co.uk/w/55604/Benjamin-Britten-Violin-Concerto-in-D-minor-Op-15 by Anton Wachmann In 1942, two years after completing the Symphony in C, Stravinsky began on a commission from the New York Philharmonic. Work progressed fitfully, with the composer changing his mind many times about the shape the work would take, with the only certainty (then) being that it would include a concertante part for solo piano. What ultimately evolved into the Symphony in Three Movements was not completed until 1945, during the final days of World War II, under the influence, as the composer wrote, “of our arduous time of sharp and shifting events, of despair and hope, of continual torments, of tension and, at last, cessation and relief…” Stravinsky, who rarely acknowledged outside inspirations for his music, referred to the composition as his ‘war symphony’. He claimed the symphony as a direct response to events of the Second World War in both Europe and Asia. The first movement was inspired by a documentary on Japanese scorched earth tactics in China. The third movement deals with footage of German soldiers goosestepping and the allied forces’ mounting success. http://www.laphil.com/philpedia/music/symphony-three-movements-igor-stravinsky This piece, is beautiful, ugly, soothing, jagged; pure genius. Its first movement, with its almost cacophonous melodies, and its chord structures bring you to the edge of yours seat, with energy and excitement. Knowing his work “The Rite of Spring” I can definitely tell some similarities between the chord composition in the first Mvt. of his Symphony in three Movements and of the chord composition in “The Rite of Spring”. He also added an instrument to his piece that quantifies its depth os sound. He added a piano, and it works very well adding its unique percussive sound to the piece. I was driving my car at night, heading home from a cello lesson, and then this came on the radio in my car. Embarrassingly enough I came to the point of almost driving off the road since I had directed so much of my attention into listening to that first movement; I had to turn it off, but when I got home I looked up the piece and listened to it over and over taking in every sound and every silence. I haven’t gotten to the other movements yet but I hope to listen intently soon. Here's a recording, Listen!!!!!
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