The War Symphonies: Shostakovich Against Stalin

Last updated
The War Symphonies: Shostakovich Against Stalin
Directed by Larry Weinstein
Screenplay by
Produced by Niv Fichman
Starring
Cinematography Horst Zeidler
Music by Dmitri Shostakovich
Production
company
Rhombus Media
Distributed byBullfrog Films
Release date
1997

The War Symphonies: Shostakovich Against Stalin (sometimes titled Shostakovich Against Stalin: The War Symphonies) is a 1997 documentary film about Soviet composer Dmitri Shostakovich. It focuses on the period between 1936 and 1945, during which Shostakovich composed his Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, Seventh, Eighth, and Ninth Symphonies, but also briefly discusses other works in the composer's oeuvre, such as his Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District .

Contents

Production

The film adopts the revisionist view of Shostakovich put forward by Solomon Volkov in his book Testimony (which is quoted extensively in the film without attribution). [1] This view holds that Shostakovich was strongly opposed to the leadership of Josef Stalin, and that he included anti-government messages in his compositions under the Soviet regime. However, the extent to which this interpretation of his music is true is a subject of debate among musicologists. [2]

The work is narrated by Graham Haley as the voice of Shostakovich. The War Symphonies was filmed in Russia and highlights performances of Shostakovich's symphonies by the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra and the Kirov Orchestra, both conducted by Valery Gergiev. Gergiev is also interviewed, as are several of Shostakovich's contemporaries; "one of the most moving accounts" in the film is from an attendee of the Leningrad première of the Seventh Symphony during the Siege of Leningrad. [3] The list of interviewees has considerable overlap with those quoted in Elizabeth Wilson's Shostakovich: A Life Remembered, published two years before the film's production; Weinstein drew heavily on this revisionist work in his scripting. [3] [4] Extensive archival footage from the Soviet era is combined with contemporary cinematography, and "the editing together of music, image, and voice-over is often masterly". [1]

The War Symphonies was rereleased by Philips as a DVD in 2005. [3]

Reception

Musicologist Ian Macdonald, an adherent of the revisionist viewpoint, noted that "those diehards who refuse to admit Shostakovich's moral anti-communism, or even that his music is anything but purely abstract, may well squirm at Weinstein's approach. Let them. Their seemingly incurable historical ignorance is the cause of their discomfort: they deserve to be annoyed by this programme". [1] Anti-revisionist Royal Brown, on the other hand, suggested that "the composer himself would have been horrified at the mickey-mousings to which some of his music is subjected". [5]

John McCannon noted the film's "slight (if understandable) tendency to over-identify with its subject" but praised its "considerable emotional power, as well as a piquant sense of irony". [6] Brad Eden recommended the work for screening in university musicology and history courses, lauding its "intense historical perspective". [7] David Haas criticized the narrator of the film as an unrealistic portrayal of Shostakovich but commended the "technical ingenuity and artistry of the film's editing". [8]

Awards

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dmitri Shostakovich</span> Soviet composer and pianist (1906–1975)

Dmitri Dmitriyevich Shostakovich was a Soviet-era Russian composer and pianist who became internationally known after the premiere of his First Symphony in 1926 and was regarded throughout his life as a major composer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tikhon Khrennikov</span> Soviet-Russian composer, pianist, and General Secretary of the Union of Soviet Composers (1913–2007)

Tikhon Nikolayevich Khrennikov was a Russian and Soviet composer, pianist, and General Secretary of the Union of Soviet Composers (1948–1991), who was also known for his political activities. He wrote three symphonies, four piano concertos, two violin concertos, two cello concertos, operas, operettas, ballets, chamber music, incidental music and film music.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Symphony No. 7 (Shostakovich)</span> 1941 symphony by Dmitri Shostakovich

Dmitri Shostakovich's Symphony No. 7 in C major, Op. 60, nicknamed the Leningrad, was begun in Leningrad, completed in the city of Samara in December 1941, and premiered in that city on March 5, 1942. At first dedicated to Lenin, it was eventually submitted in honor of the besieged city of Leningrad, where it was first played under dire circumstances on August 9, 1942, nearly a year into the siege by German forces. The performance was broadcast by loudspeaker throughout the city and to the German forces in a show of resilience and defiance. The Leningrad soon became popular in both the Soviet Union and the West as a symbol of resistance to fascism and totalitarianism, thanks in part to the composer's microfilming of the score in Samara and its clandestine delivery, via Tehran and Cairo, to New York, where Arturo Toscanini led a broadcast performance and Time magazine placed Shostakovich on its cover. That popularity faded somewhat after 1945, but the work is still regarded as a major musical testament to the 27 million Soviet people who lost their lives in World War II, and it is often played at Leningrad Cemetery, where half a million victims of the 900-day Siege of Leningrad are buried.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">24 Preludes and Fugues (Shostakovich)</span> 1951 cycle of piano preludes and fugues by Dmitri Shostakovich

The 24 Preludes and Fugues, Op. 87 by Dmitri Shostakovich are a set of 24 musical pieces for solo piano, one in each of the major and minor keys of the chromatic scale. The cycle was composed in 1950 and 1951 while Shostakovich was in Moscow, and premiered by pianist Tatiana Nikolayeva in Leningrad in December 1952; it was published the same year. A complete performance takes approximately 2 hours and 32 minutes. It is one of several examples of music written in all major and/or minor keys.

Dmitri Shostakovich wrote his Symphony No. 2 in B major, Op. 14, subtitled To October, for the 10th anniversary of the October Revolution. It was first performed by the Leningrad Philharmonic Orchestra and the Academy Capella Choir under Nikolai Malko, on 5 November 1927. After the premiere, Shostakovich made some revisions to the score, and this final version was first played in Moscow later in 1927 under the baton of Konstantin Saradzhev. It was also the first time any version of the work had been played in Moscow.

Dmitri Shostakovich composed his Symphony No. 4 in C minor, Op. 43, between September 1935 and May 1936, after abandoning some preliminary sketch material. In January 1936, halfway through this period, Pravda—under direct orders from Joseph Stalin—published an editorial "Muddle Instead of Music" that denounced the composer and targeted his opera Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk. Despite this attack and the political climate of the time, Shostakovich completed the symphony and planned its premiere for December 1936 in Leningrad. After rehearsals began, the orchestra's management cancelled the performance, offering a statement that Shostakovich had withdrawn the work. He may have agreed to withdraw it to relieve orchestra officials of responsibility. The symphony was premiered on 30 December 1961 by the Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra led by Kirill Kondrashin.

The Symphony No. 8 in C minor, Op. 65, by Dmitri Shostakovich was written in the summer of 1943, and first performed on 4 November of that year by the USSR Symphony Orchestra under Yevgeny Mravinsky, to whom the work is dedicated. It briefly was nicknamed the "Stalingrad Symphony" following the first performance outside the Soviet Union in 1944.

The Symphony No. 10 in E minor, Op. 93, by Dmitri Shostakovich was premiered by the Leningrad Philharmonic Orchestra under Yevgeny Mravinsky on 17 December 1953. It is not clear when it was written. According to the composer, the symphony was composed between July and October 1953, but Tatiana Nikolayeva stated that it was completed in 1951. Sketches for some of the material date from 1946.

The Symphony No. 9 in E-flat major, Op. 70, was composed by Dmitri Shostakovich in 1945. It was premiered on 3 November 1945 in Leningrad by the Leningrad Philharmonic Orchestra under Yevgeny Mravinsky.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Symphony No. 13 (Shostakovich)</span> 1962 solo vocal and choral symphony by Dmitri Shostakovich

Dmitri Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 13 in B-flat minor, Op. 113 is an hour-long work for bass soloist, men's chorus, and large orchestra in five movements, each a setting of a Yevgeny Yevtushenko poem that describes aspects of Soviet history and life. The work has been variously described as a choral symphony, song cycle, and cantata. Although the symphony is commonly referred to by the nickname Babi Yar, no such subtitle is designated in Shostakovich’s manuscript score.

The Cello Concerto No. 1 in E-flat major, Op. 107, was composed in 1959 by Dmitri Shostakovich. Shostakovich wrote the work for his friend Mstislav Rostropovich, who committed it to memory in four days. He premiered it on October 4, 1959, at the Large Hall of the Leningrad Conservatory with the Leningrad Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Yevgeny Mravinsky. The first recording was made in two days following the premiere by Rostropovich and the Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Aleksandr Gauk.

The Violin Concerto No. 1 in A minor, Op. 77, was originally composed by Dmitri Shostakovich in 1947–48. He was still working on the piece at the time of the Zhdanov Doctrine, and it could not be performed in the period following the composer's denunciation. In the time between the work's initial completion and the first performance, the composer, sometimes with the collaboration of its dedicatee, David Oistrakh, worked on several revisions. The concerto was finally premiered by the Leningrad Philharmonic under Yevgeny Mravinsky on 29 October 1955. It was well-received, Oistrakh remarking on the "depth of its artistic content" and describing the violin part as a "pithy 'Shakespearian' role."

Solomon Moiseyevich Volkov is a Russian journalist and musicologist. He is best known for Testimony, which was published in 1979 following his emigration from the Soviet Union in 1976. According to him, the book was the memoir of Dmitri Shostakovich, as related to him by the composer.

DSCH is a musical motif used by the composer Dmitri Shostakovich to represent himself. It is a musical cryptogram in the manner of the BACH motif, consisting of the notes D, E-flat, C, B natural, or in German musical notation D, Es, C, H, thus standing for the composer's initials in German transliteration: D. Sch..

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Music of the Soviet Union</span> Music of the Soviet Union

The music of the Soviet Union varied in many genres and epochs. The majority of it was considered to be part of the Russian culture, but other national cultures from the Republics of the Soviet Union made significant contributions as well. The Soviet state supported musical institutions, but also carried out content censorship. According to Lenin, "Every artist, everyone who considers himself an artist, has the right to create freely according to his ideal, independently of everything. However, we are communists and we must not stand with folded hands and let chaos develop as it pleases. We must systemically guide this process and form its result."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Piano Sonata No. 2 (Shostakovich)</span> 1943 piano sonata by Dmitri Shostakovich

The Piano Sonata No. 2 in B minor, Op. 61 by Dmitri Shostakovich, the last of his piano sonatas, was composed in early 1943. It was his first solo piano composition since 1933, as well as his second attempt at composing a piano sonata in the key of B-minor.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Karl Eliasberg</span>

Karl Ilitch Eliasberg was a Soviet conductor.

Veniamin Efimovich Basner was a Russian composer. He was recognized by the Soviet Union as a People's Artist of Russia and a State prize-winner. An asteroid called 4267 Basner, discovered in 1971, was named in his honour. He was a member of the St Petersburg Union of Composers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Leningrad première of Shostakovich's Symphony No. 7</span>

Dmitri Shostakovich's Symphony No. 7 had its Leningrad première on 9 August 1942 during the Second World War, while the city was under siege by the Nazi German forces.

Muddle Instead of Music: On the Opera Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District is an editorial that appeared in the Soviet newspaper Pravda on 28 January 1936. The unsigned article condemned Dmitri Shostakovich's popular opera Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District as, among other labels, "formalist", "bourgeois", "coarse" and "vulgar". Immediately after publication rumors began to circulate that Joseph Stalin had written the opinion. While this is unlikely, it is almost certain that Stalin was aware of and agreed with the article. "Muddle Instead of Music" was a turning point in Shostakovich's career. The article has since become a well-known example of Soviet censorship of the arts.

References

  1. 1 2 3 MacDonald, Ian (1999). "Music under Soviet rule: The War Symphonies". SIUE.
  2. ↑ See for example Hamrick Brown, Malcolm, ed. (2002). A Shostakovich Casebook. Indiana University Press. ISBN   0-253-21823-3.
  3. 1 2 3 Fairclough, Pauline. "DSCH DVD Review: Shostakovich Against Stalin: The War Symphonies". DSCH Journal. Archived from the original on 25 October 2014. Retrieved 25 October 2014.
  4. ↑ Fanning, David (2000). "Review of The War Symphonies". Slavic Review. 59 (2): 429–430. doi:10.2307/2697062. JSTOR   2697062. S2CID   164723979.
  5. ↑ Brown, Royal (1999). "Review of The War Symphonies". Cinéaste. 24 (2): 88–89.
  6. ↑ McCannon, John (1999). "Video Review of The War Symphonies: Shostakovich against Stalin". Journal for Multimedia History. 2.
  7. ↑ Eden, Brad. "The War Symphonies: Shostakovich Against Stalin". Educational Media Reviews Online. University of Buffalo.
  8. ↑ Haas, David. "DSCH CD Reviews: The War Symphonies: Shostakovich Against Stalin". DSCH Journal. Archived from the original on 25 October 2014. Retrieved 25 October 2014.
  9. ↑ "The War Symphonies". Bullfrog Films. Retrieved 25 October 2014.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.