sonatas, continued (Beethoven – String Quartet No. 14 in C♯ minor, Op 131)
Richibi’s Weblog
Just another WordPress.com weblog
Tag: “Quartet for the End of Time” – Messiaen
November 30, 2017
Shostakovich – intermission
“Five Angels Playing Musical Instruments“ (c.1487 – 1490)
__________
the “Quartet for the End of Time“ by
Messiaen, which I lauded in my last
transmission, is perhaps a wonderful
place to take a break, an intermission,
from the central Shostakovich, mighty
and imperial as he is, perhaps even
overbearing, compared to the more
introspective meanderings of Messiaen,
bird calls, philosophical, if more organic
explorations, a radically different musical
reaction to the tyrannical tribulations of
Shostakovich, but not in the least less
viable, convincing, you can decide
Beethoven’s 14th String Quartet in
C# minor, here, seems an apposite
musical counterpart also, a model
for the tortured movements, implicit
in either other incendiary work
note how the several movements in
either quartet hold together neatly, like
a bespoke suit, made to order, you can
follow the line of the cut in all of its
detail, and the suit fits everywhere like,
well, a glove
there are too many extra, unnecessary
ruffles, flounces, frills, excess material
to distract from the essential garment
up until now, to my mind, in Shostakovich,
one gets lost in the kerfuffle, one drifts
away, all except for his Fifth Symphony
neither do the ebb and flow of the
movements, from largo to prestissimo
and throughout the tempo ledger, lead
to distinct, personal, statements from
the individual parts in Shostakovich,
as they do in Messiaen, Beethoven,
when they slip from one chapter to
the next
Shostakovich seems to return to, rely
on, the same, however magisterial
technique – the guy ‘s an obvious
symphonist, an orchestrator of
instruments of the very highest order
– but with the same melodic matter,
variations on a single complaint, too
often reiterated to maintain rapt
attention from start to finish, one
wanders
it might be noted that comparing
string quartets and symphonies is
like comparing apples and oranges
but listen to any Beethoven symphony
for an array of unforgettable musical
airs, dances, dirges, marches, lyrical
romps through Elysian fields, you’re
transfixed through to the very end,
always, everywhere
nevertheless there is indeed the
splendid, and thoroughly
successful Shostakovich Fifth
and alone, the first movement of his
Seventh, which I’m still singing in
the streets
to eternally validate Shostakovich as
the greatest composer of the Twentieth
Century, along with Messiaen
R ! chard
November 29, 2017
Symphony no 7 in C major, opus 60, the “Leningrad”- Dmitri Shostakovich
“Leningrad in blockade. Sketch on the theme of
“Leningrad Symphony” of D. D. Shostakovich.“
(c.1943)
__________
though I’ve been through the Seventh
three times already, consecutively, it
doesn’t reach, for me, the heights the
Fifth did, its first movement is
manifestly imperious, nearly even
overwhelming, certainly unforgettable,
I’ve been humming the ostinato in my
sleep
but the following movements seem to
me – not being Russian, nor having as
intimately incorporated their culture,
where rhythms and history are
inextricably intertwined – muddled
about the reconstruction of its
shattered world, melodies might be
lovely but are lost in a blur of musical
directions, there isn’t enough repetition
of musical motifs to find solid ground,
angry statements follow lyrical adagios
too often to get our bearings on what
might be going on
the first movement, however, remains a
triumph, note the debt owed to Ravel’s
“Bolero“ in the rousing ostinato, the
part where the same musical phrase
obstinately repeats its peremptory and
ever more vociferous mantra, its
headlong incantation, an interesting
blend in either symphonic work of the
sinuous, the seductive, the beguiling,
turning into the overtly martial, all to
do with pulse
the Symphony no 7, the “Leningrad”,
was first presented in that very city
during its siege by the Germans,
which lasted from 1941 to 1944,
however unbelievably, Shostakovich,
already a giant, was expected to deliver
a masterpiece by both the people and
by the regime, imagine Bono doing a
concert for Syria
Shostakovich doesn’t disappoint
players were culled from what remained
of instrumentalists among the survivors
of both Stalin’s criminal purges and of
the German siege itself left in the city,
those who hadn’t survived the famine
there, Valery Gergiev, an exalted
Russian conductor, describes them as
walking skeletons, meagre from
starvation, we’ve seen these before at
Auschwitz
the world heard, and was moved,
imperialism in any form was being
vociferously condemned, going back
to Napoleon even and his own failed
invasion, if not also to Hannibal
crossing the Alps, Caesar, his
Rubicon
much of this symphony is about cultural
resistance, the survival of a proud and
resilient seed, any proud and resilient
seed, hence its international standing
see Beethoven’s 9th Symphony for
comparable fanfare, flourish, and
circumstance, the only other work of
any such historical political importance
and, appreciably, still unsurpassed,
except for, maybe, Roger Waters
channeling Pink Floyd at the Berlin
Wall, along with, not incidentally
there, again Beethoven
R ! chard
psst: the other great composer of the
20th Century, Messiaen, also
composed a commemoration of
an awful moment in our history,
the Holocaust, his “Quartet for
the End of Time“, played originally
in his very concentration camp by
similarly “walking skeletons”, does
for me everything Shostakovich’s
Seventh didn’t
Richibi's Weblog 