Aaron Rabushka ([log in to unmask]) wrote:

>The on-going ostinato and dozen or so repetitions of that cabaret-like
>tune that form the bulk of the first movement are boring as all get-out.
>In "Bolero" Ravel challenged boredom and routed it as resoundingly as has
>any composer.  DSCH took on a similar task in this symphony and failed.

I don't think Sjostakovitj had a thought on "Bolero" when he composed it.

Ulvi Yurtsever <[log in to unmask]> wrote>:

>May be because the first movement has too much of the same garbage which
>makes "Bolero" stink.

In fact this is a very important part of the symphony.  It is not garbage
at all.  It you think it garbage you don't get Sjostakovitj's joke(s).

Steven Schwartz [[log in to unmask]] almost got it:

>The objections center mainly on the first movement, particularly the
>"German" theme, which Bartok appropriated satirically for the Concerto
>for Orchestra.  People keep telling you it's a banal tune, without any
>hint of understanding that it's supposed to be banal.  In fact, it's a
>joke few commentators and composers (like Bartok) have gotten the joke.

Ok ok, this is one joke, but Sjostakovitj is more quirky than that, and
what you provide us with is an afterconstruction that is wrong.  Really,
and that is not so well known in the west, the marchtheme in the first
movement is very similar to a military march that was very popular in The
Red Army in the 30ies.  That it is similar to "Wir gehen zu Maxims" is a
random or the joke is double-bottomed.  It is relevant that Sjostakovitj
wrote most of the symphony before The Great Patriotic War, and the symphony
tells the story about the city Leningrad and the Russian society that the
despot communist regime destroyed, and that the nazis just completed.

Deryk Barker <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

>FWIW I enjoy both Bolero and the Invasion  in DSCH 7.

Me too.

Mark Shanks ([log in to unmask]) wrote:

>>...  The Seventh is burdened with the obvious, blatant propaganda
>>surrounding it's composition, the disgusting grasping of it's American
>>premeire (a battle of egos between Stokowski and Toscanini worthy of a
>>"Hillary and Jackie"-style

And Deryk Barker <[log in to unmask]> responded:

>This is not really fair to Stokie, is it? He persuaded NBC to get hold
>of the score, which was microfilmed and smuggled out of Russia. ...
>Toscanini decided that *he* shold premiere this work by a "young
>anti-fascist" composer.

Sjostakovitjs 7 was a really hot potato in the US that year, and many
conductors wanted to give the first performance - among them Stokovskij.
Toscanini came into the fight late, but he had the power of NBC behind him
and won.  Toscaninis Sjostakovitj recordings are rather worthless though.

James Zehm
<[log in to unmask]>