Chris Bonds asks:
>I would like some list help here. If you are familiar with all the
>symphonies of Shostakovich, how would you rank them in terms of a) their
>intrinsic excellence and b) their importance to understanding of the
>composer? If that is too much work, then I'd be satisfied with your top
>three overall picks.
I don't expect my choices will be typical, but here they are:
15. Because it is, amongst many other things, a summing-up of his work.
4. Because it shows a much younger composer, overflowing with ideas and
virtuosity and self-confidence, and because it contains the germs of much
of what came afterwards.
6. Because it exemplifies his quirky, sideways-on way of approaching
things. Because it is not what it appears to be.
As usual, on another day you'd get different answers. 8 and 10 are only a
tiny distance behind; 5, 9 and 14 in the chasing group. Apart from 2 & 3,
which I should be surprised to find featuring high in anyone's list, I
could make a case for just about any of them - even 7, which is my personal
Shostakovich blind spot. And 1, which is amazing considering his age and
experience when he wrote it but which is perhaps not a "mature" work
representative of the composer.
>Annotate your choices, ...
Done.
>... and suggest a performance on CD of each, in both a top pick
>and a best budget pick, if possible.
Sorry, but there are plenty of people here who love doing that kind of
thing. It's not my game.
>Thanks in advance.
No problem. I enjoyed it.
Ian Crisp
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