Newsgroup: it.arti.musica.classica
Titolo: [shostakovich] In vino veritas

In a passage describing a visit by the Borodins to Moldavia in 1956,
Dubinsky recounts a concert performance of Shostakovich's Fourth Quartet:
"The first row was occupied by leading Moscow composers, with Shostakovich
himself in the center. Sitting in front, he probably thought no one could
see him, and his face unwittingly reflected what he had wanted to say with
his music. But I saw his face: the contorted mouth and the eyes of a
pursued, wounded animal. His face was the strongest impression I remember of
the whole festival, a sharp contrast to the officially lacquered lie with
which the authorities covered their crimes. Twice in his life - in 1936 and
in 1948 - Shostakovich had suffered a 'civil execution'. Stones flew through
his windows, accompanied by shouts of 'Formalist', 'Traitor', 'Trotskyite',
and even 'American spy'. The natural end of this 'ideological' campaign
should have been physical execution, but by some miracle that didn't happen.
The expectation of violent death, however, became the main theme in
Shostakovich's music and was stamped forever on his face.
"We played the fourth quartet with this subtext of life and death. We were
in no danger: the music was officially permitted, and the notes, after all,
were only innocent sounds, all sorts of F-sharps and B-flats. Even Mozart
and Beethoven played with them!
Notes are not words, not yet - even in the USSR! But playing now to
Shostakovich about Shostakovich, we felt we were not obedient Soviet court
musicians but fearless unmaskers of evil and hypocrisy. It's easy to be
brave when there's no menace, but what kind of courage must it take when you
risk your life for the truth!
"The final pianissimo, like a last sigh, flew off into the hall and returned
to us as a barely audible echo. We tried to prolong the silence, but the
audience interfered. Destroying the fragile world of brief truth, uncertain
applause broke out in the hall. We rose slowly, bowed very low to
Shostakovich, and left the stage. The applause died out without gaining
strength.
" 'Well, to hell with all of you,' swore Berlinsky softly.
"'I agree,' I answered. 'To understand that music, they'd have to forget
about their Party card for half an hour.'"
After the concert, the Borodins joined Shostakovich and other composers and
musicians for a meal in a restaurant. Drink flowed freely and an oaf in a
black leather jacket tried to join their table, only to be thrown out after
proposing an anti-semitic toast. (To which Shostakovich replied "What
filth!".)
Afterwards the company called for the Borodins to play the quartet again:
"We each took two instruments and two music stands and headed downstairs
without speaking. Four chairs were already waiting for us in a corner of the
room. I opened my case, got out the violin, checked the tuning... And
suddenly I felt an unusual lightness and
freedom in both hands. What was it? Surely not a glass or two of wine? If
so, then such a creative path threatened to become extremely dangerous.
"I looked at my colleagues. Alexandrov was tensely tuning his instrument and
probably cursing me. Shebalin and Berlinsky had clearly drunk to excess, and
it showed. The former wisely did not try to tune his instrument, but
repeated that he was a 'sportsman', while the
latter's hands were visibly uncoordinated. He tried his solo from the second
movement, and at one point his fingers turned up on one string while his bow
was on another. He laughed and turned to Shostakovich.
"'Dmitri Dmitrievich, forgive me if something is not just so...'
"'Everything will be "so", don't worry, everything will be "so"...'
"We began to play. In the first movement there were problems. Someone was
always late, and it proved impossible to lead the quartet; instead, it was
led by whoever played the slowest. The second movement went better. A
peculiar, drunkenly rhythmical balance, from which it was dangerous to
diverge, had settled in the music. We played fairly successfully up to the
recapitulation, where the initial melancholy melody reappeared.
Several voices began to sing along with us...
"It really means something if people sing Shostakovich's music!
"They sang along again in the scherzo, which we played in manner of a street
gang's song.
With the discordant voices there appeared a particular musical effect, which
would be impossible to write into a quartet score. This seemed to please
Shostakovich, because he also started singing... This was unexpected and
even frightening. I never heard Shostakovich sing before or after that
evening.
"Gradually the quartet got used to the drunkenness, and by the 'Jewish'
finale we were all playing confidently. After the incident with the man in
the black leather jacket, it rang out in a somewhat different key... There
was neither applause nor praise, only the long silence that is necessary
after such music."
da "Stormy Applause", di Rostislav Dubinsky
http://www.siue.edu/~aho/musov/2test.html
--
"Tutta la comunicazione è pubblicità, se non è amore"
Enrico Ghezzi

 his music. But I saw his face: the contorted mouth and the eyes of a
cut....
perchč non ha vissuto ancora una decina d'anni quel grand'uomo..... ufffff
che perdita........
D.

 ufffff che perdita........
Chissirivede... è passato un po' di tempo, eh...
Un altro aneddoto sul vino, di Rostropovich:
"(Shostakovich) gave me the manuscript of the First 'Cello Concerto on 2
August 1958. On the sixth I played it to him from memory, three times. After
the first time he was *so* excited, and of course we drank a little bit of
vodka. The second time I played not so perfect, and afterwards we drank even
more vodka. The third time I *think* I played the Saint-Saëns concerto, but
he still accompanied *his* concerto. We were enormously happy."
Mstislav Rostropovich
Norman Lebrecht, "The Book of Musical Anecdotes" (The Free Press; NY, 1985)
p. 326
Ciao    :-))
Mr Duffy



veramento io ero sempre qua, anche se i miei post sono poco calcolati......
forse erano meno accsi di altre volte, ma sto passando un periodo che
definire brutto è poco.... spero solo che passi in fretta, altrimenti non so
com andrà a finire....
D.

 com andrà a finire....
In bocca al lupo. Abbiamo bisogno - anche - della tua causticità...
A proposito, l'hai preso poi Mintz/Postnikova? La sonata per viola è una
bomba...
Ciao    Mr Duffy


 Ciao    Mr Duffy
non ancora ma ora che me lo ricordi vedrò alla prossima visita da Iperdue
cosa hanno (la prossima settimana.... eh eh eh ....)
Devo dire che la musica è una delle pochissime cose che mi aiutano in questo
periodo, se non ci fosse non so come farei......
D.

 ha scritto nel messaggio
: news:tG1ka.13223$DT4.4...@twister1.libero.it...
: non ancora ma ora che me lo ricordi vedrò alla prossima visita da Iperdue
: cosa hanno (la prossima settimana.... eh eh eh ....)
: Devo dire che la musica è una delle pochissime cose che mi aiutano in questo
: periodo, se non ci fosse non so come farei......
non ce l'hanno. discoland si, ma a eu.12,50. ricordi -se c'è nella tua città-
fino all'altra settimana aveva l'elatus a eu.9,90
ciao,
--Arthur Hoggett--
: D.

 sorridere, che le battute per cui ero famoso sono sparite [...]
Anche qui dicevo per dire, mica voglio per forza 'ingabbiarti' in un nick a
senso unico. E' solo che ricordo, agli albori della mia alfabetizzazione
informatica, che una tua risposta ad uno che chiedeva come gli amanti della
musca classica passassero i sabati mi aveva fatto pensare che in questo
posto mi sarei potuto trovare bene... Riguardo alle persone che hai perduto,
non ci sono parole. A me in certi momenti la musica non aiuta neanche.
Ciao    Mr Duffy
--
"One Christmas was so much like another, in those years around the sea-town
corner now and out of all sound except the distant speaking of the voices I
sometimes hear a moment before sleep, that I can never remember whether it
snowed for six days and six nights when I was twelve or whether it snowed
for twelve days and twelve nights when I was six."
Dylan Thomas, "A child's Christmas in Wales"

 ha scritto nel messaggio
news:q0Tla.30673$iy5.8...@twister2.libero.it...

grazie mille, ogni volta che da iperdue cerco qualcosa che mi preme
regolarmente non c'è...... sigh......
D.


ah, come si capisce che chi ama il grande Dimitri non può che essere una
grande persona.......... grazie Duffy....
D.