From: s892024@yallara.cs.rmit.OZ.AU (Richard A. Muirden [GA])
Newsgroups: alt.fan.shostakovich
Subject: Shostakovich's 14th Symphony - liner notes from Haitink's recording...
Date: 31 Aug 92 10:18:56 GMT


        Dmitri Shostakovich (1906-1975)
        
        Symphony No. 14 Op.135
        
        Julia Varady, soprano
        Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, baritone
        
        Concertgebouw Orchestra/Bernard Haitink
        
        (DDD)
        
        DECCA (London) 417 514-2 DH
        
        (with Six Poems of Marina Tsvetaeva, Op.143a)
        
           I De Profundis (4.45)
          II Malaguena (2.37)
         III Loreley (8.35)
          IV Le Suicide (6.45) 
           V Les Attentives I (2.58)
          VI Les Attentives II (1.52)
         VII A La Sante (8.46)
        VIII Reponse des consaques zaporogues au sultan de 
             Constantinople (2.05)
          IX O Delvig, Delvig! (4.44)
           X Der Todd des Dichters (5.26)
          XI SchluB-stuck (1.14)
        
        
        (P) 1981.
        
        Recording Location: Lieu d'enregisttrement - Aufnahmeort: 
                            Grote Zaal, Concertgebouw, Amsterdam. 
        
        ---
        
             Shostakovich's  Eleventh  Symphony, The Year 1905,  and  the 
        Twelfth,  The  Year 1917, are public symphonies  celebrating  the 
        triumnphs  of the Russian Revolution. The three which follow  are 
        private expressions of anguish. The Thirteenth sets five texts by 
        Yevtushenko,  a poet who had allready aroused the  antagonism  of 
        the   Soviet  authorities  -  and  with  the  veryu   poem   that 
        Shostakovich  chose  for the first in the  cycle,  Babi-Yar.  The 
        texts  contain  scarcely veiled attacks on Stalinst  society  and 
        remainders of the anti-Semitic feelings in Russia for some years. 
        The  Fifteenth,  the  composer's  last  symphony,  is  a   purely 
        orchestral  piece  and  the  most enigmatic  of  them  all,  with 
        quotations  from  Rossini  and Wagner as  well  as  allusions  to 
        Shostakovich's own Leningrad symphony. It ranges from the  sombre 
        and  elegiac slow movement to expressions of high  spirits  which 
        barely mask a profound unease.
             The Fourteenth Symphony for soprano, bass, string  orchestra 
        and  percussion was written in 1969. The unifying element of  the 
        eleven  poems set is the image of death; not an image of  comfort 
        or of solace but of unremitting gloomn: '...people who claimed to 
        be  my friends...wanted the finale to be comforting, to say  that 
        death was only the beginning. But it's not a beginning, it's  the 
        real  end, there will be nothing afterwards,  nothing."(*)  While 
        the  five movements of the Thirteenth preserved the outlines  and 
        proportions  of the symphony as Shostakovich, followijng  Mahler, 
        had  understood  the term, the Fourteenth is  in  effect  chamber 
        music, a song cycle with orchestral accompaiment.
             The work is dedicated to Benjamin Britten (who conducted the 
        first performance in the West at the aldeburgh Festival in 1970), 
        and  it's use ofr a text which is an anthology of authors may  be 
        compared  to Britten's Serenade for tenor, horn and strings.  The 
        Spring  Symphony,  and  the Nocturne for  tenor,  sevel  obligato 
        instruments  and  string orchestra. Moreover the  string  writing 
        recalls  Britten's in the Variations on a Theme of Frank  Bridge, 
        and its expanded tonality - high dissonant chords and free use of 
        twelve-note  melodies  within a diatonic context -  links  it  to 
        Britten's Songs and Proverbs of William Blake, written in 1965.
             In  the  origional  version of the  symphony  the  poems  by 
        Apollinaire,  Garcia  Lorca  and  Rilke  were  sung  in   Russian 
        translation,  although  the  composer revised  and  authorised  a 
        German  version.  In  this  third  version,  also  inspected  and 
        approved  by Shostakovich, the songs are sung in their  origional 
        languages,  except  for  Appollinaire's  Loreley,  which  follows 
        closely  a  German poem written in 1801 by Clemens  Brentano  and 
        which is sung in that language.
             No  feeling of peace or of release in deatrh is  allowed  to 
        creep  into the cycle. Certainly the texts, particuarly those  of 
        Apollinaire,  have  a plaintive, nostalgic quality; but  this  is 
        likely to dissolve into desolation, or more often, to erupt  into 
        passionate savagery at any moment. The anthology ranges from  the 
        purely  contemplative,  like  A la Sante, O  delvig,  Delvig!  or 
        SchulB-Stuck, through to the macabre Malaguena and the bitter Les 
        Attentives  II, to the grotesque Reponse des cosaques  zaporogues 
        au  sultan de Constantinople and the dramatic scena, Loreley.  In 
        his  response  to suffering Shostakovich shows himself to  be  an 
        acutely  sensitive as his compatriot and hero  Mussorgsky,  whose 
        Songs  and  Dances  of Death he had  orchestrated  in  1962.  His 
        admiration  shows  itself  in  his  conviction  that  music  must 
        communicate  as directly as possible. Mussorgsky's  influence  is 
        felt in the rhythms of Shostakovich's wordsetting and in his  use 
        of  harmony as an expressive means to a particular end,  governed 
        by  circumstance  and by the dictates of his own inner  ear.  The 
        words are mostly set syllabically; the voices have a tendency  to 
        intone  on a single note or a short phrease as in  De  Profundis, 
        Reponse des Cosaques, and at the opening and close of Le Suicide, 
        creating a feeling of unrelieved melancholy. Or else, in complete 
        contrast the vocal lines scurry chromatically in a  directionless 
        frenzy as they do in Loreley.
             Shostakovich  can use a single melodic line to convey  heavy 
        irony:  the  theme  beaten  out on  the  xylophone  with  martial 
        jauntiness  at the opening of Les Attentives I  reinforces  tonal 
        effects by emphasising the intervals of the fourth and fifth; but 
        it  a  twelve-note  theme,  no  tonality  is  securied,  and  the 
        assertivness of the xylophone creates not confidence but unease.
             The writing is prevailingly diatonic but is never allowed to 
        suggest  affirmation or resolution, and tonality is stretched  to 
        its limits. Clusters of notes are used at the stabbing climax  of 
        Le Suicide and in the grotesque epilogue to Reponse des cosaques. 
        The last chord of the work is densely chromatic and reiterated by 
        the  strings to serve a percussive, not a tonal purpose,  and  to 
        articulate a savage despair.
             The  instrumental  forces are not large but  are  used  with 
        telling restraint and invariable resource. At the opening of  the 
        work  the high, wandering string line, recalled later in Der  Tod 
        des Dichters, suggests the bleak landscape of the soul, the  high 
        violins  contrasting with the divided double basses whose  sombre 
        coplouring is intensified by the absence of the cellos. The bells 
        are  used  in only two of the songs: in Loreley,  two  loud  bell 
        strokes interupt the knights' warning cries to the  golden-haired 
        witch and lead into a luminous texture of widely-spaced  strings, 
        vibraphone,  celesta,  and  soft  bells,  gently  heralding   the 
        appearance  of her lover, yet also her death; and in  Le  Suicide 
        the  frenzy erupts with the same two repeated bell strokes,  only 
        to give way to the desolation of the song's opening.
             While  the Fourteenth Symphony is dark with despair it  also 
        blazes  with  defiance: "I don't protest against death in  it,  I 
        protest  against those butchers who excute people';  '...You  can 
        and  must  protest  against violent  deatl,'  said  Shostakovich. 
        'Worse  criminal than Barabbas...Executioner of Podolia'  accuses 
        the text of Reponse de cosaques. Exhorted to use his art for  the 
        ideology  of his rulers, Shostakovich used it rather to tell  the 
        truth  as he believed it to be. The Fourtheenth Symphony  is  the 
        document of a courageous artist.
        
        (c) Timothy Day
        
        (*)  Quotations  are  from  Testimony:  The  Memoirs  of   Dmitri 
        Shostakovich  as  related  to  and  edited  by  Solomon   Volkov, 
        translated  from  the  Russian  by  Antonina  W.  Bouis,   Hamish 
        Hamilton, London. 1979.