So I was finally able to really sit and listen to this.
 

So, I had to hide under my covers and sneak this in, in seclusion.



It's a really great composition.

https://i.imgur.com/Fp6u6cs.png

I really enjoyed the quiet little romantic moments throughout. Though towards the end it became a little anxious, lementful, frantic. It's probably blasphemous but I would have just done the quiet romantic bits.

I feel like there was a flaw, maybe deliberate, maybe to illustrate something in the conducting by Leonard Bernstein, really periodically punching it up to crazy movie climactic cinematic crescendo. It broke down the symmetry of the composition and belayed the compositions influences on western drama, and in turn western dramas return influences on the performance. It was over the top. The Chicago Symphony Orchestra did a really nice performance. It was fun, and emotional.

To be there, in Leningrad, in 1941 along side Dimitri, and at its premier in Samara in 1942, that would have been a delight. The confidence and pride and sweet taste of victory and release would have been quite serene. I bet everyone had a wonderful evening after that performance.

we already know you're interesting, you don't have to pretend

there are definitely incongruences and bits that feel too much liek parody in shostakovich. I have wondered if these are explainable perhaps in that he was subject to time and editorial pressures from the communist party and Stalin himself, his creative devices subordinated to the need for national propaganda, and knew he existed at the whim of dullards and chance whatever his talent. I know he was subject to many episodes of censorship, for real or perceived taboo ethnic musical references, and ive heard he would sneak some subversive stuff in but that is over my head for now. I think those bits of disorienting clumsiness might be in reference to the foolishness around and above him tho. Just sounds too much like it to me. Hope I can gain the encyclopedic knowledge required to confirm the meaning of these possible witticisms 1 day.

As for the pacing, you might be right to call out good old obvious Lenny. teh consummate showman. but this one got me wet.

что это?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VbxgYlcNxE8 also very good

I'll check out this longer one when my head isn't murdering me

I had similar thoughts but didn't really feel like coming out and saying it. I think every artist struggles against their audience.

The war was just ending or still going even? And the state was ramping up for some serious control and even competition with the west. Repurposing a military apparatus designed to fight to the death and canabilise everything? This particular symphony wasn't even during the cold War, but just prior. I forgot when communism really took root and became really autocratic but it was survival and total warfare with the Axis during the years that inspired this symphony. It was about winning at any cost or everything Russian would have been lost completely.

Cool. We should keep this thread going. I'll give this a listen as well.

My knowledge of the Russian's is that they did some incredibly impressive things, but no one liked them who wasn't Russian or well connected politically and a lot of people starved and had to take horrific risks under survielence and military control just to feed themselves.

lol i am familiar with this recording and it's g00d

if you like tchaikovsky check out symphony 6 it is very good and makes use of another gimmick (instead of cannons, it ends on an adagio, omg soooo sad).



beware suicide as it claimed him soon after its debut which is almost understandable. that melody's hook does a pretty good job making it seem attractive or even sexy. then listen again and hear the abject, pitiful whininess. what a queen. he prolly did it to convince u the symphony was extra-deep.

now, wash your brain with something less self-important before you catch the pre-antibiotic homo syphilis.:

another good epic classic though not Russian
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Isic2Z2e2xs

I recognized the Mars song within "Getting too Tense" from Doom, despite not hearing the song for over 25 years from the game Outpost. It will stick with you forever