Thursday December 17, 2009

Colorado Symphony Orchestra
Marin Alsop, conductor
Dmitri Shostakovich: Symphony No. 5, Op.47 (10/9-11/09)
Also, Charley anticipates Bonnie Draina's appearances with the Boulder Chamber Orchestra this weekend.
Antonio Vivaldi: Opening section from In turbato mare irato, RV 627 7:34
Bonnie Draina, soprano (stocking feet); Mutsumi Motecki, piano (shod); Janet Braccio, page turner (shod)
CPR Performance Studio 12/4/09 MS

Dmitri Shostakovich (1906-1975): Symphony No. 5, Opus 47
I. Moderato
II. Allegretto
III. Largo
IV. Allegro non troppo

Shostakovich's life as a Soviet artist was occasionally stormy. In 1936, after a performance of his opera Lady Macbeth of Mzensk, Pravda printed an editorial headlined ``Confusion Instead of Music.'' The opera was described as ``a wilderness of musical chaos, in places becoming cacophony....The composer ignored the demand of Soviet culture that all coarseness and wildness be abolished from every corner of Soviet life.''
The Union of Soviet Composers endorsed Pravda's opinion. All performances of Shostakovich's music ceased. The Fourth Symphony, then in rehearsal, was withdrawn. Shostakovich himself withdrew from public life.
But he was hardly idle. From April to July of 1937, he wrote his Fifth Symphony. There is now some dispute over whether it was Shostakovich or a Soviet critic who subtitled the work ``a Soviet artist's practical creative reply to just criticism.''
In any case, Shostakovich was at least publicly contrite. In a magazine article, he wrote: ``Working ceaselessly to master my art, I am endeavoring to create my own musical style, which I seek to make simple and expressive. I cannot think of my further progress apart from our socialist structure, and the goal that I set for my work is to contribute at every point toward the growth of our remarkable country.''
Yevgeny Mravinsky conducted the Leningrad Philharmonic in the first performance of the Fifth Symphony on November 21, 1937. ``The atmosphere at the premiere was highly charged,'' Shostakovich recalled. ``The hall was filled. All the best people were there, and all the worst too. It was definitely a critical situation....Which way would the wind blow?''
In short, the Fifth was a smash hit. One listener remarked: ``This is not music; this is high-voltage, nervous electricity.'' The composer remembered: ``People who came to the premiere of the Fifth in the best of moods wept.'' Writing in Izvestia, Alexei Tolstoy reported: ``The powerful, rousing sounds of the finale stirred the audience. All rose to their feet, infused with joy, and happiness streamed from the orchestra like a spring breeze.''
Conductor Mravinsky wrote of the Fifth: ``This symphony is, I consider, a phenomenon of world-wide significance. It has staggering strength and depth of philosophical conception embodied in strict forms which are classical in their simplicity and greatness. The complete mastery of the writing is so obvious that it does not require any comment....I can only compare my feelings as the first musician to perform this symphony with what I experienced when coming into contact with the finest examples of the world's musical literature.''
``The theme of my symphony,'' said the composer, ``is the development of the individual. I saw man with all his sufferings as the central idea of the work, which is lyrical in mood from start to finish; the finale resolves the tragedy and tension of the earlier movements on a joyous, optimistic note.''
The score calls for piccolo, 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 5 clarinets, 2 bassoons, contrabassoon, 4 horns, 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, percussion, celesta, piano and strings.