Shostakovich week 2 1 2014 copy

Dmitri Shostakovich (1906-1975)

Lady Macbeth, Formalism and Symphonies 2-3

Week 2 20

First Symphony Success at 19 ‘First composer of the

revolution’

Books on Shostakovich l Fairclough, Pauline (2008) Cambridge

Guide to Shostakovich l Norris, Christopher (1982) Shostakovich,

The Man and his Music l Roseberry, Eric (1986) Shostakovich, His

Life and Times l Volkoff, Solomon (1979) Testimony l Elizabeth Wilson (1994) Shostakovich: A

life Remembered l MacDonald, Ian (1990), The New

Shostakovich

Soviet Union l  Read Alexander

Solzenitsen’s books:- l  Day in the Life of Ivan

Denizovitch l  Gulag Archipelago l  Recent books of

Simon Sebag Montefiori e.g. The Red Tzar, The Whisperers.

Shostakovich’s Youth and First Success

l St Petersburg – the revolution – mother taught him the piano

l Glazunov and conservatoire years l Early Work in early 20s, cinema pianist l Family was committed to the revolution l First Symphony – a student work and a

great success

Early years – up to 1930 l Comparative freedom of expression at first,

allowing toleration of experimentalism in the arts. Kandinsky, Meyerhold, Mayakovsky

l Career of a concert pianist in his 20s. l Popular and critical acclaim both at home

and abroad as a result of first symphony. l One of 3 great composers of the Soviet era

– with Prokofiev and Khachaturian – host of lesser composers. All doing important work in the 1920s and 30s.

1924 Lenin Dies –

This Changes Everything l Bolshevics ruthless in getting power. Used

any means to do so. l Stalin was however a real killer – used

terror to control the population. l Quotas of people to be killed. l Picked on all sorts of groups, ethnic groups,

Kulak, but also elites – generals, doctors, political wives, composers.

l A psychospath and worse than Hilter? l Famine and forced movement of villages.

Stalin takes over 1926 l From 1924 Stalin gradually rises to power –

Trotsky his great rival. l Civil War still ongoing and widespread

unrest caused by economic policies – period up to 1928 not so bad as after 1930 (NEP).

l Peasants at first are given land and some do well under the New Economic Policy

l By the end of the 20s economic problems take hold and the economy stagnates.

l Stalin responds -1930s era of collectivisation, 5 year plans, repression, terror

Second Symphony 1927 l Conceived as a symphonic poem –

Dedicated to October Revolution. l  In one long movement it is non-thematic

and challenging. l Contrasting tempi, ever-changing textures,

extreme dynamics, linearity, - organised chaos. Uses revolutionary spectacles of the day – tableaux –

l Reflects involvement with theatre and film.

Second Symphony

l  ‘at first there is obscure chaos symbolising the unenlightened past of the working class; then the awakening of protest, the ripening of rvolutionary consciousness, and finally, glorification of the October Victory’

l Marina Sabinina in Cambridge Guide to Shostakovich p.15.

A challenging work? l 4 main episodes – but through composed. l Composed for the 10th anniversary of the

October Revolution of 1917 – poet Alexander Bezimensky.

l Somewhat programmatic – darkness to light.

l Palindronic shape, - parallels with 12-tone music. True modernism in music.

Third Symphony 1929 l A tableaux of filmic images. Like a film

score. l Celebration of the First of May. l  ‘I tried to convey only the general mood of

the international Workers Day Festival. I wished to portray beautiful construction in the USSR. I would point out that the element of of struggle, energy and ceaseless work runs through the whole symphony like a thread.’ letter to Isaac Glikman.

The start

l  ‘Shostakovich wrote his “First of May” on his own initiative, without a commission or particular performance in mind. May 1st was always a major day of celebration in the Soviet Union, not because it was an anniversary of any event (Kirsanov’s fourth and fifth stanzas should not be read to imply that the Tsar was deposed in May 1917—it happened in March), but because it had been designated a labor holiday by the Second Socialist International in 1889. In 1929, Shostakovich wrote in his post-graduate report to the Leningrad Conservatory, “While in the [Second Symphony] the main content is struggle, the “May First” expresses the festive spirit of peaceful construction, if I may put it that way. To make the main idea clearer for the listeners, I introduced a chorus to words by the poet Kirsanov at the end.”

First Mvt: Allegretto

Second Movement: Piu mosso

Andante

Allegro

Moderato (last movement)

Text of Last Movement

l Today on this gleaming May festival let our sun resound … `before in the gloomy years we went timidly and afraid …. When the Winter was gray, and shooting still was heard on the field of war, an army of workers and peasants stormed the palace of the tsar. Daringly the step was taken .. Onward our path leads us.

Background

l  In 1930 Shostakovich together with the young writer Alexander Pries wrote the libretto for Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District from a short story of the same title by Nikolia Leskov.

l The plot follows of the story of Shakespeares’ Macbeth but with many differences – above all in the setting.

1930s 1930-32 a time of galloping industrialisation under

the 5-year plans. Collectivisation of farming and deportation of Kulaks (land owning small farmers).

In the arts the former plurality of artistic groups was being replaced by the stranglehold of proletarian organisations.

Now all artistic expression had to be politically relevant.

Appeared in an atmosphere of disinformation – censorship and fear.

Leskov already known and deemed progressive.

More background

l  Early 1930s a period one happiness for Shostakovich – lots of work and prosperity – courtship of Nina Varzar who he married in 1932.

l  Shostakovich altered the tale to ‘leave behind the impression of Katerina as a positive personality’. Her musical personality is the most lyrical. The others are all parodys developed from music-hall and cabaret entertainments.

l  Low-art verses high-art. A tragedy/satire – all directed at the evils of the hated bourgeois past. Is it a feminist work?

Goodall on Lady MacBeth

Socialist Realism

l  The new mantra for all arts – after Maxim Gorky’s speech at the ‘All Union Congress of Soviet Writers’ in 1934.

l  The satire on the security services perceived in the police station scene was seen by all – including Stalin who thought the police chief was him.

l  Also power of love and passion was upper most in his mind – dedicated to Nina. A tale of love overpowering social norms.

Changes l  The opera is full of risque characters, ruggedness,

rough language, erotic illusions, etc., and music that matched – expressive stridencies, exaggerations in part writing , dissonances, syncopations, etc.

l  All these supposed ‘crudities’ were removed in many re-writes over 30 years.

l  Although first performed in 1932 it was not published until 1935 and by then censorship had got to work on it.

Lady MacBeth

Lots of Versions l  There is the impulsive original that caused the

scandal, and several later versions including the published version of 1935 (in Vienna, Universal Editions and Moscow).

l  For example the string passacaglia between the fourth and fifth scenes was replaced by a moderate version played by the organ.

l  In 1963 the composer submitted a completely new revision - calling the work Katerina Ismailova in order to have it performed again in Russia.

l  The productions are very different and many different interpretations are possible.

Characters

l  It takes place in a small provincial town in the 1860s in Russia.

Katerina is the bored, young wife a provincial merchant – Zinovi – she hates her husband, has no children, and hates housework. She is bored.

Zinovi Izmailov is reproachful of her wife for not producing an heir after 5 years. He is well off and too busy with his business.

Characters

Boris Tomofeyevich is an old but lustful father-in-law who coverts Katerina’s body. Father of Zinovi

Aksinya – the household cook Sergei- a young worker hounded from his job

following an affair with his previous employer’s wife.

Lots of other minor parts – foremen, servants, convicts, Boris’s ghost, priest, policeman, teacher, drunken guest

Act 1

l  Zinovi is going off – servants snigger, Boris berrates Katerina for not producing a son. Katerina swears to be faithful in his absence. Sergei is introduced by Cook.

l  2: Labourers led by Sergei are molesting Aksinya – Katerina defends the cook and challenges Sergei to a trail of strengh as Boris intervenes.

l  3. Boris watches Katerina. Katerina is bored – Sergei on pretence of wanting books to borrow forces his way into her room and they consummate their passion.

Act 2

l  Boris is tormented by sleeplessness he decides to perform his sons marital duties. At that moment Sergei crawls out of Katerina’s window, and Boris beats him senseless in the presence of the family household. Sergei is then looked in the storeroom.

l  Katerina is ordered to bring Boris mushrooms – which she poisons.

Act 2

l As Boris dies in pain she takes the key and gets Sergei out.

l Katerina then sleeps with Sergei – but is tormented by conscience. The ghost of Boris appears and curses her. Zinovi returns and calls her to account.

l Sergei and Katerina then murder him and put his body in the cellar.

Act 3

l  Katerina is marrying Sergei, Zinovi having been declared missing. She keeps on looking at the cellar.

l  While all are a church a Peasant breaks into the cellar and finds the corpse and goes for the police. At the station the police are offended at not being invited. They are persecuting a teacher – on getting the news they set off for the wedding. In the celebrations Katerina discovers the broken lock on the cellar – it is too late to escape and the lovers are arrested.

Act 4

l  Katerina and Sergei have been found guilty and are on their way to a labour camp in Siberia. Men and women are separated – but Katerina bribes a sentry to see Sergei. He reproaches her for being the cause of his fall. She has lost all her attractions for him and he tries to win another convict girl over – Sonyetka. She demands stockings which he gets from Katerina – who finds out and pushes Sonyeka in a river and jumps in after her and both are drowned. The convicts are marches away.

Musical Characterisation

l Each character has its own musical characteristics which reoccur when they return or are evoked. Generally the musical idea is to a mood of state of mind associated with a character rather than to a character as such, somewhat in the manner of a Janacek opera.