Bernard Chasan <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

>I am a great admirerer of this composer's work.  It is indeed expressive
>of the twentieth century in ways that are not always easy to pin down, It
>is gloriously messy music, and I can understand Charles Rosen's comment
>that Shostakovich wrote noise pollution or some such, although I think
>that Rosen is wrong, and probably would say the same of Mahler.

Where did Rosen say this about DSCH? I also recently became aware of
similar comments by Boulez (I think he called DSCH a third-rate Mahler).
Has Shostakovich-bashing become some sort of ideological slogan of the
Boulez-Rosen camp? How disappointing...

>S's relationship to the totalitarian government is complex, controversial
>and open to more than one interpretation. But does it really matter [other
>than] as a matter of cultural history and the interaction between music
>and society?

Indeed it doesn't, and I for one am sick of hearing the autobiography
of DSCH associated with every damn thing he wrote; the same old
pseudo-historical drivel shoved down our throats in concert notes, CD liner
notes, radio shows, newspaper articles,...  it's almost like a Stalinist
conspiracy:)

Ulvi
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