Tags
Classical music, Classical music review, Dmitri Shostakovich, Leonard Bernstein, New York Philharmonic Orchestra
Truth trapped in a pressure cooker
This extraordinary piece of music (the 5th Symphony – Leonard Bernstein, New York Philharmonic, 1960 recording) is here given a wondrous interpretation – though I do have one cavil (more of which later)
Shostakovich was for a while a Soviet darling. His music indelibly Russian, strong, heroic – though of course music without words is a particularly subtle medium of expression. Because it is wordless, and because in the end its reception, in the listener’s ears, sinews, guts, heart, is so subjective, it can be far more covertly subversive than art-form using words, which can be coldly scrutinised and analysed by those looking to outlaw heterodoxy. And the complexity of classical music is a particularly good hiding place, especially as performance itself, of the same notation, can uncover different meanings.
Shostakovich fell from grace when his music was combined with narrative and words – the opera Lady Macbeth of Mtensk. Stalin walked out of a performance, and that was enough. The composer was then living on the edge; a dangerous time and place to stand accused of being ‘unprogressive’ . Men and women were incarcerated in mental hospitals and labour camps for revisionism or being ‘anti-Soviet’ and of course the labels were often cut by apparatchiks to fit all manner of breaches of a constantly shifting Party Line.
The controversial 5th symphony was composed in 1937, and represented Shostakovich’s (ostensible) desire to make amends; he described it as ‘a Soviet artist’s reply to just criticism’ So its controversy resides in part in interpretation and re-interpretation. Did Shostakovich sell-out? Is he therefore pariah as far as other, braver dissenters of the time are concerned? Or (given the possibility of music without words to embrace subtle nuances of meaning) was the piece itself more subversive, still, than the party line ‘approvers’ believed?
A document published in 1979, after the composer’s death, ‘The Testimony’ reported something Shostakovich said :
I think that is it clear to everyone what happens in the Fifth – it’s as if someone were beating you with a stick and saying ‘Your business is rejoicing, Your business is rejoicing’ and you rise shakily and go off muttering, ‘Our business is rejoicing, our business is rejoicing
And here interpretation in performance plays its part, and where my cavil arises over this otherwise glorious performance.
In 1960 when this recording was made, Bernstein to some extent I think – particularly as he performed this IN Russia with the New York Philharmonic as part of a cultural exchange, friendship programme – plays the finale ‘triumphally’ This was of course ‘pre-Testimony’. He takes the final movement at a fairly ferocious lick. And this has the effect of reducing a particular quality of blaring, shocking dissonance which, when taken a tithe slower, because it is more held, is physically more edgy, uncomfortable, harsh, rather than triumphant. Certainly, a couple of live concerts I’ve attended, in the last couple of years, where this work has been performed, a slight slowing of the pace makes any idea of ‘triumph’ seem full of mockery. In fact, the most recent concert of it, the final notes feel like the end of the world, the ferocious mechanical energy, representing the heavy, productive blows of Soviet industry, which occur in the final movement, speak not of the glory of rising output and economic growth, but of ‘the cost, oh the cost of human life and spirit – it is individual man and woman being beaten under those hammers” Or, as the cellist Mstislav Rostropovich rather more succinctly said
Anybody who thinks the finale is glorification is an idiot
In this version (recorded in 1959) the finale definitely suggests the ‘triumph over adversity’ which the Party Line wanted from its artists, the music is spritely, vigorous optimistic and energetic
Here is Lenny conducting that finale again, 20 years later, and some 90 seconds slower. To my mind, this gives the contrast between the hugely dynamic aspects and the slower, more reflective harmonious sections a kind of manic, angsty, almost deranged quality to the big blaring blusters, like public pronouncements
However, whatever interpretation the composer intended, whether he bowed to pressure or whether the symphony represents a resistant call to those who wish to hear it, one thing IS clear, this is a stunning, profound piece of music. The fact that it has so many possibilities inherent for discovery within it, the fact that performance itself yields such diversity, is testament to its richness
And I do, despite missing the end of the world bleakness of the finale which is uncovered at slightly slower tempo – it is, after all, marked as allegro non troppo, rather than allegro – think this is a wonderfully rich and satisfying interpretation
This version is completed by Shostakovich’s Piano Concerto No 2 in F major with Bernstein conducting from the piano.
Though I must admit, such is the power of the Symphony, that I am musicked out and reeling with wrung out emotion and can’t contemplate listening to anything else.
Rarely has the edgy yet bleak despair after the devastation of war, the horror and emptiness of militaristic blare, the utter exhaustion of a kind of inevitable surrender to the posturings of spin, and the end of the world been so beautifully done. The little threads of quiet hope which arise throughout the piece, the small moments of peace and harmony, have nothing to do with the state. Though crushed, again and again, ‘and still they rise’
(Quotes from ‘Testament’ and from Mstislav Rostropovich are from the CD liner notes)
What a piece, what a stunning piece
As stated, the version I have (which Gramophone Magazine particularly lauded) is a long ago recording, and remastered. I can’t find the version on Amazon’s US site, though there are pairings of that recording with other second pieces.
Here is the link to the Amazon UK version I have and it is also available as an mp3 download, so you can hear snippets from each movement of this interpretation
Shostakovich Symphony No 5, Bernstein/New York Philharmonic Amazon UK
Lady Fancifull 
Fantastic review – I shall be back once I’ve listened to the two versions, and compared with the Haitink/Royal Concertgebouw version which I have…
First off, it really is a fabulous piece of music however it’s interpreted – love me a bit of drama! But wow, yes! What a difference in the two Lenny performances! The first one is good, but the second one is great – really gets the manic feel over. Haitink comes somewhere in the middle, I think – it runs at about the same length as Lenny’s second, but somehow comes over as almost pretty in the slower sections rather than the tension of the Bernstein version, and misses the mania of Bernstein in the faster sections.
In general, I don’t have a good enough ear to interpret music – it rarely tells me a story, at least not in a language in which I’m fluent. It’s a bit like trying to read a book in French – I get the words but not the nuance. But though it doesn’t speak to my brain, it often speaks to my heart. I feel a Shostakovich marathon coming on…
Brilliant review, m’dear! Encore! Encore!!!
Ah thanks FF…..am minded to try other versions too
Hmm, how music speaks………….whilst I really appreciate someone being able to add a more knowledgeable interpretation to what I’m stumblingly, inchoately feeling my way towards, I DO think that you have to really do what you say in your last sentence – let music speak to you in the way that it does. I think what has changed for me over the years with music is that I’ve got better at rolling over and surrendering to a piece of music and seeing what happens. And there are some great and enthusiastic musicians and conductors out there who really want to demystify ‘great music’ and prove how universal and accessible it is. Actually, Lenny was particularly brilliant at that (am going to go scurrying to Amazon) I remember, it must have been in the late 80s or 90s, there were a series of programmes for the BBC, taking quite well known symphonic works, and ‘deconstructing them’ before then playing them through in entirety. And the deconstruction was not dry and academic, it made you see/feel/hear/understand the language. In fact, I think it may well have been that series which really helped me to listen to classical music in a very different way. I remember, what was the standout programme for me was Lenny and Beethoven 5, and what he did was to help me to ‘unlearn’ and ‘unfamiliarise’; it needed a lot of attention, but I became able to listen as if I’d never heard it before, and the experience was quite amazing.
And…re Shostakovich marathons……….you may well find me doing the distance too!
I do find it adds a lot to the experience to know a little – not too much – about the background and technicalities. I know there’s a lot of baggage, but I really did get so much out of our music conversations on Vine – the Bruce/Mike fights really made me think much more about music and listen more carefully, and I found myself agreeing with both about equally – sometimes at the same time! And the classical music thread over on Az was great for a while too, but sadly it’s gone downhill in the same way as Vine now. And I must say that I always enjoyed Bruce’s reviews of classical music too – they were written in layman’s terms that I could understand, whereas often the classical reviewers are so knowledgeable (I assume) that they’re really only speaking to other experts. I’ve always felt that there’s a real gap on Amazon of good classical music reviewing that’s helpful to the novice.
If you find the series you’re talking about, do post a link!
I agree with all you said above, those were fabulous locked horns by 2 people who were passionately in love with music, knew stuff, and played to the gallery to convince their point of view. And it was probably an area where there was some grudging willingness to listen to each other (classical music) as they did have some similar tastes.
Alas, I have tried all sorts of searches and nothing is coming up (that series) but now its on my mind I’ll keep trying sporadically.
There have been some good series on BBC4 and i think some time ago on Channel 4 too. Charles Hazlewood who was (is?) the conductor of Orchestra of the age of the Enlightenment is a great communicator. And if ever a small orchestra called Orpheus Sinfonia comes up your way……….young musicians, just out of college, and they do a good combination of playing works but ‘deconstructing’ them first, putting them into context of their world, and also playing snippets of other works to show you where influences, hommages and the like have come from. And its all done with huge enthusiasm and delight, rather than the sort of academic ‘an eighteen bar sequence of rising 4ths’ which leaves me whimpering and cross-eyed (perhaps, even, whimpering in rising 4ths for eighteen bars)
Oh, and PS – you probably do this too, but I periodically take a stroll around wordpress on a keyword search ‘classical music’ – there are lots of blogs with people who are writing stuff which is both erudite and accessible and kindly including Youtubes of various performances/versions on CDs etc,