{"id":376,"date":"2007-06-23T12:53:09","date_gmt":"2007-06-23T12:53:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kennethwoods.net\/blog1\/2007\/06\/23\/shostakovich-chamber-symphony-op-73a-our-challenge\/"},"modified":"2007-06-23T12:58:48","modified_gmt":"2007-06-23T12:58:48","slug":"shostakovich-chamber-symphony-op-73a-our-challenge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kennethwoods.net\/blog1\/2007\/06\/23\/shostakovich-chamber-symphony-op-73a-our-challenge\/","title":{"rendered":"Shostakovich Chamber Symphony op 73a- our challenge"},"content":{"rendered":"

I\u2019m just flipping through scores before my SMP dress rehearsal this afternoon and realizing what an incredible challenge we have ahead of us tonight.<\/span><\/p>\n

Shostakovich\u2019s Third Quartet is in five movements, and five movement works almost always are built on some concept of formal symmetry. Usually, they describe some kind of an arch.\u00a0<\/span> <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

In this case, the third movement is the center of dramatic action in the work. Shostakovich in his own descriptive notes called it \u201cForces of war unleashed,\u201d and Dubinsky called it \u201cthe wild triumph of evil.\u201d It\u2019s a movement that is wild, violent, grotesque and unremitting.\u00a0<\/span> <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

It is followed by one of Shostakovich\u2019s saddest movements (think about that!), a short, intense requiem built on a solemn march theme, which is itself a reworking of the theme of the slow movement of the 8th<\/sup> Symphony. Shostakovich called this movement \u201cIn memory of the dead.\u201d The second movement shows signs of the violence of the third, alongside moments of almost na\u00efve simplicity. Shostakovich called it \u201cRumblings of unrest and anticipation.\u201d\u00a0<\/span> <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The outer pillars of the arch pose the biggest problems for the performers. The first movement hardly sounds like 20th<\/sup> Century music at all, and is in a perfect, Haydn-esque sonata form, complete with an old-fashioned exposition repeat. At first glace, it doesn\u2019t sound like music that belongs in a Shostakovich quartet, least of all one from the war years. Shostakovich\u2019s title also helps clarify the mood of this movement- \u201cBlithe ignorance of the future cataclysm.\u201d Where as often in Shostakovich, this kind of simple music is played for bitter laughs, here it is to be played straight and totally sincerely. In this movement, ignorance truly is bliss. This is music of and for a man and a people who know too little.\u00a0<\/span> <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The finale, on the other hand, is music of and for a man and a people who know far, far too much. Dubinsky describes this movement as \u201ca sorrowful and moving story about Shostakovich himself and his pain and anxiety about the future of humanity.\u201d Shostakovich described the music in even starker and simpler terms, \u201cThe eternal question: Why? And for what?\u201d\u00a0<\/span> <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Where the peak of the arch is all action and drama, the end of the quartet is pure contemplation- a ten minute meditation on a question. It\u2019s a meandering, simple and sad movement that often seems to wander, lost in thought. It\u2019s based on a long melody whose only memorable quality is that it contains a very clear quotation from Tristan und Isolde. Only gradually does the cumulative power of the movement begin to register, and the ending sounds as if the whole world has dissolved into individual atoms. The question is left deeply considered, but unanswered.\u00a0<\/span> <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

I think it\u2019s incredibly hard to pull off- we aren\u2019t used to contemplation in music any more, and we ask music to give us answers, not questions. We like our music and our entertainment to be constantly stimulating. In fact, although I think the last movement is the greatest music in the quartet, it doesn\u2019t work on its own. It needs what comes before it. Hopefully tonight, we can keep that arch whole, so that the wounds of the third and fourth movements are still unhealed when we reach the finale. Will the public get it? Will they appreciate it? Will we be drowned out by coughing? I\u2019ll let you know.\u00a0<\/span> <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

c. 2007 Kenneth Woods\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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