Shostakovich 13

 

The more I think about it, the more I wonder if Shostakovich 13 is not the singular score of the entire 20th century. I say this with... minimal parochialism.... The text helps, and so does the depictions of the worst acts of the 20th century, but nothing else gets this far into human nature, both its degradation but also its resilience. The nearest competition is #14...

Also, why has hardly anyone ever noticed that in the 'Humor' moment, Shostakovich quotes Bartok's Sonata for Two Pianos and Percussion? It's as though he's saying 'turnabout is fair play.' As much as I often don't like Gergiev, I still wonder if this is not the greatest, most terrifying version I've ever heard. I'm sure some would find it too fast or sloppy, but I often find other versions unsustainably slow. And anybody who needs music like this to be neat has completely missed the point.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FQccC7ATJbE&list=PLE196F8117B2DBE98&fbclid=IwAR397b80186rdRlpoPxT5gibrpBfb0Qbv0JcJHbfjpQuS0qfhuHeqrvGbgw

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Hearing Yuri Temirkanov conducting Shostakovich 13 was one of the great experiences of my life. One of the most searing performances I've ever heard of anything that put us directly in touch with the darkest parts of 20th century history. Before the performance, Yevtushenko read his poetry. Yevtushenko isn't a great poet (Brodsky was right), but he was one of the most charismatic performers I've ever seen - like a Russian 'slam poet' whose poetry is clearly meant to be performed rather than read. His performance was as though we were watching an oracle channeling the spirit of gods. If that seems over the top, well... so was he...

Of the official recordings, Temirkanov's second is my favorite - though Jarvi comes relatively close. It gets us closer to the vital spirit this extraordinary score than some famous lugubrious performances. But his first is plenty great and gives plenty of the sense of what's magnificent about Temirkanov's performance - minus a tuba vibrato in the 4th movement that sounds inappropriately comic.

Listen particularly to the 'Humor' movement, at a tempo that is nearly impossibly fast takes on the comic proportions of the finales of 6 and 10. Had the family of Mel Brooks (who started as a musician and wrote all his movie's songs) stayed in Russia, perhaps Mel Brooks would have written this kind of manic comedy. It sounds as though it might fly apart, but my god the intensity of the playing... How can people possibly care about precision and score fidelity in the face of these cyclones?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YhqFmaAo1QY