SHOSTAKOVICH New Babylon, Jewish Folk Poetry

"Given its significance in Shostakoich’s output, it’s curious how few recordings of his song-cycle From Jewish Folk Poetry have been first-rate. This new one undoubtedly is though. For a start Polyansky’s three vocal soloists are uncommonly well chosen: the light, youthful, slightly vulnerable soprano, the rich, world-weary mezzo and the ardent but unheroic tenor are ideally suited to the texts... Polyansky’s choice of the first Shostakovich’s 35 or so film scores makes for a more than welcome coupling... Polyansky offers an admirably idiomatic version of the Suite. He is especially adept at choosing timbres to reflect mood and situation... Even if you don’t know the story-line the music was designed to accompany, this perfomance is so vividly characterized it can hardly fail to engage you..." --Gramophone, June 1998

Shostakovich’s film music represents an important area of his output, which began in December 1928 when he started writing the core to the film New Babylon. This was his first film-score commission, and the start of a collaboration with some of the Soviet Union’s great film directors. Unfortunately, Shostakovitch was rather too ambitious in this, his first film score; the music was too complicated to be used as background to s silent film, and was dropped in favour of a more conventional score. However, Rozhdestvensky arranged this extensive suite from the original score and, as orchestral music, the striking originality abd energy of this work can be heard to best advantage.

Shostakovish was always interested in Jewsih music and much of his music was influenced by this interest. The song-cycle From Jewish Folk Poetry was writen in 1948 and orchestrated in 1964. Like much of this composer’s writing, it is full of parody and double meaning. Though Shostakovitch had to ’celebrate’  Russian life and to bring music closer to Russian people (in concurrence with Zhdanov’s 1948 decree), he did this, rather challengingly, by adopting a Jewish theme, so as to celebrate Jewish life in Russia - and in the knowledge that there was a large amount of anti-Semetic feeling. However, this is not a deeply cynical work. Indeed, there is much genuine sorrow, which is deply moving in performance, and consequently this work has become a permanent fixture in the repertoire.
Reviews

"...I strongly recommend this CD for both works..."
Royal S Brown - Fanfare - July August 1998

Performance *****    Sound *****
Ates Orga - BBC Music Magazine - June 1998

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Ditulis hoohoh — Sabtu, 09 April 2016 — Add Comment — 20th century, Shostakovich Dmitri