Close-up Shostakovich - A Portrait of the Russian Composer (Documentary, 2006)
Humour, sarcasm, and grotesqueness - and not least, an overriding pessimism - are characteristics not only found in Shostakovich himself but also in his music. The film intends to be as authentic as possible in portraying the composer, neither denouncing him as an opportunist nor praising him as a dissident. The seven chapters try to reconstruct how the young star composer, who renounced the traditional was known for his grotesque distortions, became the stiff state composer, most of whose life is still in mystery.
Summary by Google
- Dmitri Shostakovich, born in 1906, is a pivotal 20th-century composer associated with the Soviet Union.
- Influenced by the turbulent history of Russia, Shostakovich's early works reflect rebellion against tradition and incorporation of the Russian grotesque.
- Shostakovich, initially involved in film music, seamlessly blended cinematic techniques into his compositions.
- "Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District" marked a turning point; criticism led to personal danger during Stalin's Great Terror.
- Under constant fear and surveillance, Shostakovich navigated a delicate balance between artistic integrity and survival.
- His Symphony No. 5 is a heroic response to being labelled an enemy of the people, aligning publicly with socialist realism.
- Shostakovich's artistic journey reflects a complex relationship with Soviet authorities, embodying resistance and patriotism.
Highlights by Google
- Shostakovich's early rebellion against tradition included a penchant for Russian grotesque.
- Film music engagement profoundly influenced Shostakovich's composition techniques.
- Shostakovich faced personal danger during Stalin's Great Terror, impacting his Symphony No. 4.
- Symphony No. 5 served as Shostakovich's public alignment with socialist realism amid political pressures.
- Shostakovich's art became a powerful tool, embodying resistance and patriotism in the face of Soviet scrutiny.
Summary by Edge and Copilot AI
1)
Portrait of Shostakovich: This video is a documentary about the life and music of the Russian composer Shostakovich. His music is characterised by humour, irony, grotesqueness and pessimism. The film tries to portray him authentically rather than condemning him as an opportunist or praising him as a hero.
2)
Musical background: Shostakovich was a composer active during the Soviet Union, facing historical events such as Stalin's tyranny and the Second World War. His music was used to express political messages and personal feelings but was also subject to censorship and criticism. He struggled to find an audience that understood his music.
3)
Musical characteristics: Shostakovich's music encompasses a variety of genres and styles. He composed symphonies, string quartets, operas, ballets and film music. His music contains technical elements such as melody, rhythm, harmony, instrumentation and artistic elements such as emotion, thought, satire, and irony. His music leaves a strong impression and feeling on the listener.
4)
What the film is about: This film presents Shostakovich's music and anecdotes and testimonies from his life. The film features interviews with his friends, family, colleagues and experts, as well as his photographs, letters, film footage and audio recordings. The film explores the relationship and meaning between his music and his life.
5)
Shostakovich's masterpieces are many, but the following are the most famous.
Symphony No. 5: This work is one of Shostakovich's masterpieces and reflects his music's irony, grotesqueness and pessimism.
String Quartet No. 8: This work is one of Shostakovich's most famous string quartets and is characterised by the sharp contrasts, grotesque elements and ambiguous tonality that characterise his music.
Piano Concerto No. 2: This work is one of Shostakovich's most famous piano concertos and reflects his music's irony, grotesquerie and pessimism.
These works reflect the irony, grotesquerie and pessimism characterising Shostakovich's music.
6)
The 'Leningrad' Symphony was composed by Shostakovich in 1941 and is based on the siege of Leningrad (now St Petersburg) during the Second World War. This symphony was written to honour the courage and resistance of the citizens of Leningrad. Also known as No. 7, it is noted for its grand scale and moving melody.
This symphony is one of the most famous pieces of music composed during the Second World War and is considered one of Shostakovich's masterpieces.
6)
Recommended conductors and orchestras who have performed Shostakovich's Fifth Symphony include
Vasily Petrenko: Famous for his performances with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra
David Afkam: Famous for his performances with the HR Symphony Orchestra
These conductors and orchestras have enthusiastically performed Shostakovich's music and received high praise.
7)
Recommended conductors and orchestras who have performed the "Leningrad" Symphony are
St Petersburg Symphony Orchestra: This orchestra is based in St Petersburg, Shostakovich's home town, and is well-versed in his music.
David Afkam: This conductor is famous for performing with the hr Symphony Orchestra.
These conductors and orchestras have enthusiastically performed Shostakovich's music and received high praise.
Close-up Shostakovich - A Portrait of the Russian Composer (Documentary, 2006)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G-FpiPWdSGA&t=48s
Dmitri Dmitriyevich Shostakovich(1906-1975 - Wikipedia
Dmitri Dmitrievich Shostakovich(September 25, 1906 - August 9, 1975 ) was a composer during the Soviet Union. He is best known for his string quartets.
Along with Sibelius and Prokofiev, he has almost established his reputation as the most significant symphonic composer since Mahler and is recognised worldwide as a master of symphonies. He also left behind some excellent string quartets, making him one of the 20th century's most significant art music composers. Although much of Shostakovich's music has a dark and heavy atmosphere, he loved popular music and left some light jazz-style pieces behind.
Initially, Shostakovich was portrayed as a Soviet propaganda composer who catered to the regime. Still, after publishing "The Testimony of Shostakovich", Shostakovich became known for his cynicism, anti-establishment, and "the music and regime that he wanted." The image of him as a tragic composer who struggled with the disconnection from the music he desired was also added.
Schostakowitsch: 5. Sinfonie ∙ hr-Sinfonieorchester ∙ David Afkham
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cg0M4LzEITQ
Schostakowitsch: 7. Sinfonie (»Leningrader«) ∙ hr-Sinfonieorchester ∙ Klaus Mäkelä
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GB3zR_X25UU&t=10s
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Shostakovich's life and significant works
https://ontomo-mag.com/article/column/shostakovich/
Shostakovich's life
A)
His final work, Symphony No. 1, made him famous.
Russian composer. His father was a Polish intellectual, a graduate of the Faculty of Science at St Petersburg University, and his mother was an accomplished pianist, a graduate of the St Petersburg Conservatoire. He has an older sister, Mariya (a pianist), and a younger sister, Zoya (a scientist). He learned the piano from his mother at nine and made extraordinary progress. In 1919, he entered the Petrograd Conservatory (now the St. Petersburg Conservatory).
B)
His father died in 1922, and he fell into financial difficulties. Still, thanks to his mother's dedicated efforts, his part-time jobs and the strong support of Glazunov, director of the conservatory, he continued his studies. He graduated from the piano department in 1923. In 2015, he graduated from the composition department. His graduation work, Symphony No. 1 (1924-25), was performed not only in the Soviet Union but also throughout Western Europe, making him famous as a genius born of the new Soviet Union.
He participated in the First International Chopin Competition in 2017, receiving an honorary prize and being recognised as a pianist. In the late 1920s, he composed his Symphonies No. 2 (1927) and No. 3 (1929), but he moved closer to the world of theatre and film, which attracted many talents then, and composed many of his works in that direction. It was also during this period that he became interested in avant-garde techniques.
C)
Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk Region establishes his status as a composer.
The work that finally established Shostakovich's status as a composer was the opera Lėdi Makbet Mtsenskogo uyezda. It premiered simultaneously in Leningrad and Moscow in January 1934, and both were huge successes in the long run. The following year, it was performed in many foreign cities, including Cleveland, New York, Ljubljana, Copenhagen, Zurich, Zagreb and Bratislava, and succeeded wildly. However, on January 28 1936, the newspaper Pravda published an editorial saying, "It's not music, it's nonsense," and his tragic fate began. He withdrew his Symphony No. 4 (1935-36) midway through rehearsals and took a short break from composing.
D)
The rare success of Symphony No. 5 and the completion of Symphony No. 7 "Leningrad
The Fifth Symphony, composed over three months from April 18 to July 20 1937 and premiered with Mravinsky conducting, was a rare success and restored the composer's reputation. From that year, he was accepted as a professor at the Leningrad Conservatory (now the St Petersburg Conservatory) and began his career-long teaching career. With the outbreak of the Second World War, Leningrad was attacked by Hitler's troops in 1941.
In October, he was evacuated to Kuibyshev (now Samara) and completed his Symphony No. 7 on December 27. It was dedicated to the war-torn city of Leningrad and broadcast throughout the Soviet Union. The score was also flown to the United States on microfilm and played repeatedly by conductors such as Toscanini, boosting Allied morale. Symphony No. 8 (1943) is also a war symphony, but rather than a picture scroll depicting a battle like the 7th, it is an interior work expressing the suffering of war. I don't have a reputation.
E) 'Forest Song' in response to Zhdanov's criticism and subsequent symphonies
Symphony No. 9 (1945), released immediately after the victory, was a piece of chamber music full of light wit that seemed to express the joy of liberation from war. Still, many people expected a grand symphony to praise the victory. It was unpopular with the people who made it. The post-war ideological stranglehold extended to the music world, and the infamous criticism of Zhdanov in January 1948 affected almost all leading composers, including Shostakovich. Shostakovich responded to this criticism with his oratorio Pesn' o lakh (1949) and film music, which earned him his fourth Stalin Prize.
F)
Stalin died on March 5 1953, and Shostakovich caused a sensation with the publication of his Symphony No. 10 in December of that year. Although it was criticised for its pessimistic content and lack of socialism, it was also praised for its sincere portrayal of the tragic nature of humanity. This work is a precursor to the "Thaw" that will soon begin.
However, the subsequent Symphonies No. 11 (1956-57) and No. 12 (1959-61) were dedicated to the revolutionary events of "1905" and "Memories of Lenin", and it was a work that could be called a model of socialist realism. In contrast, Symphony No. 13 (Babi Yar) (1962) used Yevgeny Yevtushenko's anti-establishment poems, and Symphony No. 14 (1969) was a collection of poems about death. It was a formally daring work.
G)
Since 1958, he had been suffering from a strange illness that caused numbness in his hands and feet, but in 1966, he suffered a seizure and was diagnosed with a heart attack. He had a second heart attack in 1971 but recovered and continued to compose music. In the summer of 1975, after completing the Viola Sonata op.147, he fell ill again and died in Moscow on August 9 at 6.30 pm. His body was buried in the Novodevichy cemetery.
Throughout his life, he was active in social activities, served as the Soviet Union's representative to the International Peace Committee and as a member of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union. He received all the honours of the Soviet Union, including the Order of Lenin, and numerous international awards, including a doctorate from Oxford University.
Add info No2)
[Finally here] AI installed in Windows! Added 150 new features! Too amazing! [Windows Copilot]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DyrDHeevvGE
AI comes standard with Windows and is packed with 150 valuable features. First, go to Settings from the Windows logo in the bottom left of this screen and start this Windows update. If it is not there, click Check for Updates in the top right-hand corner, and it will appear. Download and install it, then restart when finished. Not all the features can be downloaded at this stage, but they will be distributed in phases. Please get the latest updates as they become available and click Check for updates again. You can choose to receive programmes automatically when new features are added in the future. A logo like this will appear in the taskbar after restart. This shortcut for your Pilot is the AI code built into your Windows. Bing Chat is now available on Windows.
It's not just a Bing chat; you can change your computer's settings from here. Then I asked him to open a notepad, and it started. It only has a few features at the moment, but as it has just begun and is still in beta, I think it will be able to do more and more in the future.
It can do everything you can do in Bing Chat. Now, let's start up Edge and launch Copilot. I'll show you what's great about the collaboration feature. Anyway, let's take a look at the article. Let's go to the report. If you want to read the article but it's a bit long, I'll summarise it here. I searched for MicrosoftEDTab and found that it is active. This page is currently active. In other words, it summarises this page. It summarises the article and gives it to me.
For example, you can use it like this. The text has been added to the Copilot by selecting the option to frame these English articles like this. For example, you might want to explain, summarise or expand here, but I will ask for a translation now. Yes, you have translated it beautifully. For example, she may ask you to write a report or provide additional information for this article.
It's too early to be surprised. Check out Edge's YouTube channel. Take a look at this recently published video. In this situation, I asked the Copilot what the video was about, and he could explain it to me. This is fantastic. Previously, you could have done the same thing using Google's extensions, but his point is that you can now do it using standard Windows functions.
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Keeping Score | Dmitri Shostakovich: Symphony No. 5 (FULL DOCUMENTARY AND CONCERT)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e3RbWSfhlp4&t=2378s
The Fifth Symphony of Dmitri Shostakovich is the story of a fall from grace and redemption. Shostakovich was the golden boy composer until, virtually overnight, his patriotism was questioned and condemned in the most public way possible. Written in 1937 in Stalinist Russia, the Fifth Symphony marked his triumphant return. But the question remains: what did the composer mean to say with this enigmatic music? In scenes filmed in St. Petersburg and Moscow, Michael Tilson Thomas and the San Francisco Symphony offer clues to unlocking Shostakovich's musical secrets and make the case for how this symphony may have saved his life.
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Dmitri Shostakovich: A Man With Many Faces | Documentary on the Legendary Russian Composer
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hvUt-Uc_KA0&t=909s
Dmitri Shostakovich is arguably one of the greatest composers of the 20th century. In commemorating the 40th anniversary of his death in 2015, we take the opportunity to revisit his life and works. Never before has any filmmaker had the chance to draw on the complete cycle of the composer's 15 symphonies and all of his six Concertos, brilliantly performed by Valery Gergiev, the Mariinsky Orchestra, and hand-picked soloists. Never before has there been an interview partner such as Valery Gergiev, who knows the works of Shostakovich inside out. Reiner E. Moritz's documentary portrays the composer as a "man of many faces".
Shostakovich under oppression seen in "Sonnet No. 66" ~ Expressions in literature, painting, and music
https://ontomo-mag.com/article/column/shakespeare24-sonnet66/
