Neil McGowan
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« on: November 04, 2011, 05:15:56 pm » |
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I was certainly pleased to see two Russian works in the list - if you do a bog-standard BMus as I did, you'd think no music was written in Russia at all. But I share a certain amount of Mr H's scepticism about the choice of DSCH 7. I'm not really sure that pieces should win listings on the strength of the extra-musical circumstances which shaped their creation? Of course it might be possible to put forward a purely musical rationale for including the 7th on the list, but I fear that in fact it's been included because it's the most popular of Shostakovich's symphonies. Personally I would have chosen the 8th (which I think is the finest of them all), the 14th (for several very personal reasons... I like the poetry in it, my other half has sung it - and is due to sing it again with Elder next year - and I've performed in it myself, the celeste part). Or of course the 5th. Or the 15th.
And I would have chosen Tchaikovsky 4 instead of 6... if we are looking for pieces which really "changed music". The moment at which the material from the first movement returns in the last movement is truly a revolutionary way of putting a symphony together. Now that did change music! I was lucky enough to hear Dmitry Jurowsky (Vladimir's younger brother) conduct it a few months ago, in a revelatory and gripping performance with the Russian Philharmonia... formerly an also-ran among the Moscow orchestra's that he's licked into fine shape since taking the helm.
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