Anguished Shostakovich

Shostakovich has a subversive sense of humor that I can relate to. I find myself being very subversive at my workplace. "Ebullient" is code for "Republican" or "right wing". VIP dignitaries are given various epithets, like Senegalese lepidopterists. Thus, if I say "this damn Senegalese lepidopterist is being quite ebullient", many people think I'm talking nonsense.

Last night, I went to go hear the Stanford Symphony Orchestra play an all-Shostakovich program. Despite all of the discussions flying back and forth about whether Shostakovich's music is shallow, boring, etc. and all of the Shostakovich-bashing that is taking place on one of my discussion boards, I found his works quite moving and definitely full of emotion/angst.

The program consisted of Prelude for Strings, and an arrangement of the String Quartet #8, (the program called it Chamber Symphony), and the Cello Concerto #1. The first one, I didn't have much of an impression of.

The second one was quite moving. I was a bit distracted by what seemed like a lack of practice; in some passages, there were not-quite unisons, uncoordinated bows, and perfunctory playing, despite the angst that this piece attempts to convey. It is a song dedicated to "victims of fascism and war", but as the program notes indicate, I found the piece much more introspective and sinister. Shostakovich's conflicted feelings really came out in the music.

However, the real highlight of the evening was the Cello Concerto. What a stunning performance. The cellist from the St. Lawrence String Quartet played the solo parts. I thought that between the excellent program notes, the pre-concert lecture that gave us lots of background on this piece, and the interpretations of this piece by the conductor, the soloist and the orchestra, all of that combined made for an excellent concert-going experience. I have to admit, I've only heard limited amounts of Shostakovich (mostly piano) live, as well as hearing recordings of his symphonies, but I was never really into his music much. It certainly never had me hanging off the edge of my seat as this cello concerto performance did. I guess there is nothing quite like experiencing it live.

The contrast between the beautiful lyrical sections and the jarring ones full of angst were striking.

The cellist played with such passion. Ah, such passion and skill! I could see the angst in his face. In several sections, the cellist played with his fingers practically at the edge of the fingerboard. The best way I can describe the sound of such high registers is that it sounded like a more ominous, deeper version of a violin. It's the kind of sound that (literally) seeps into the marrow of your bones and makes you shudder.

The program notes mentioned that for both the Chamber Symphony and the Cello Concerto, Shostakovich inserted excerpts from pieces that Stalin either hated (the Symphony) or loved (Cello Concerto). He also salutes Prokofiev in the cello concerto, and uses a variation of his signature (DSCH turns into D-E flat-C-B natural) as a recurring motif in his pieces.

As I listened, I imagined what it was like to have to write music under a repressive regime and necessitate this sort of subversive political referencing in music. I mean, how would these pieces have sounded different if he weren't making some sort of anti-Stalin statement? Would the pieces have sounded less anguished?

The concert made me appreciate Shostakovich's wry sense of humor.