Faces of
Classical Music
http://facesofclassicalmusic.blogspot.gr/
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This
DVD presents
Larry Weinstein's award - winning film '
Shostakovich against stalin',
Musical response.Described by the composer as his ''tombstones'', simphonies 4 to 9 represented the composer's waepons against
Stalin's tyranny, and remain powerful testimony to a great artist's struggle against oppression.
Shot on location in
St Petersburg and
Moscow, the film brings together archive film, personal recollections from shostakovich's family, friends and colleagues,and key extracts from the symphonies, performed by the
Netherlands Radio Philharmonic, conducted by
Valery Gergiev.
The power of art to defy and even transcend politics and oppression is the theme of Shostakovich
Against Stalin:
The War Symphonies, director Larry Weinstein's documentary about
Russian composer Dmitri Shostakovich and the six symphonies he composed while his homeland suffered under the brutal dictatorship of
Josef Stalin.
Born in
1906, Shostakovich gained considerable prominence after the unveiling of his first symphony in 1926, by which time
Lenin was dead, the
USSR had been founded, and Stalin had assumed power as
General Secretary of the
Communist Party. Thereafter, the composer was subject to the whims of the dictator. An early opera, "
Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk" (a depiction of "the justified murder of a tryant"), led to his being banned; his
Symphony No. 7, the "
Leningrad Symphony," composed as
Hitler invaded
Russia in
1941, was virtually appropriated by Stalin as great
symbol of resistance (which it was--although Shostakovich intended it as a rebuke to all forms of socialism, including Stalin's), but the tables were turned again with
Symphony No. 8, which was regarded as "counter-revolutionary." Through it all, the composer's work (generous extracts of which can be heard among the DVD bonus features) revealed how he really felt about life under Stalin, whose regime was responsible for the deaths of tens of millions of
Russians. Much of
Symphonies No. 4-8 consists of music that's harsh and aggressive, nervous and tragic; even No. 9, written to commemorate the
Allied triumph in
World War II and seemingly a light, joyous ode to victory, was in fact filled with musical sarcasm, a favorite mode of expression for Shostakovich. A combination of photos, vintage file footage (some of it featuring the composer himself), newer interviews with family, friends, and musicologists, and more, Shostakovich Against Stalin is a moving tribute to a great artist's will. --Sam
Graham
2005
(HD 1080p)
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Faces of Classical Music
http://facesofclassicalmusic.blogspot.gr/
- published: 15 Feb 2014
- views: 52866