FUCK YEAH Classical music
Jan. 16th, 2022 08:12 pmI admit, this post is mostly for ![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
nnozomi's benefit, but I'm putting it in my own journal for future reference.
Was at the symphony this afternoon; the program was Poem for Orchestra by William Grant Still, Gershwin's Piano Concerto, and after the intermission, Shostakovich's Fifth Symphony. I discovered Shostakovich about a decade ago on rereading a compendium of great composers with short bios and "starter kits," and was touched by the story of him waiting on the landing every night so that if he was arrested by Stalin's men, his family wouldn't have to watch. The Fifth Symphony, I learned today, is the piece he wrote to save his life and redeem his standing after being denounced. We arrived early enough that we could hear the guest conductor talk about this at the Concert Comments before the performance, but he gave a little precis to the main audience as well, particularly about the argument over the last section of the final movement -- is it the happy ending Stalin wanted, or is it bitter recapitulation and tragedy? Or is it both?
The performance was amazing, and as for the finale, I told K that it reminded me of nothing so much as that scene in the Star Trek reboot where Zachary Quinto accepts being kicked out of the Vulcan Academy, giving the Vulcan salute and saying "Live long and prosper" in such a simple tone that it clearly means the opposite. My most immediate comment was, "I never heard 'fuck you' spelled out with a timpani before!" My respect for Shostakovich has gone up several notches today.
Anyway, the point of this is that the guest conductor, Joshua Weilerstein, has a podcast called Sticky Notes, in which he deals with various pieces of the classical repertoire, interviews artists and musicians, introduces niche music to wider audiences, and is just generally cute and enthusiastic and well-informed. I listened to both parts 1 and 2 of the episodes about Shostakovich 5, and discovered that Weilerstein was indeed responsible for the KCS being seated differently than usual -- some aspects of this symphony, he said, are strengthened by having the orchestra in a particular configuration. Sadly, Weilerstein already has a job, or I would wish KCS would hire him when Michael Stern retires.
In sum,nnozomi (and anyone else who finds this appealing), run don't walk to "Sticky Notes" if you haven't found it already. He has an episode about Bruckner's 7th!
nnozomi's benefit, but I'm putting it in my own journal for future reference.Was at the symphony this afternoon; the program was Poem for Orchestra by William Grant Still, Gershwin's Piano Concerto, and after the intermission, Shostakovich's Fifth Symphony. I discovered Shostakovich about a decade ago on rereading a compendium of great composers with short bios and "starter kits," and was touched by the story of him waiting on the landing every night so that if he was arrested by Stalin's men, his family wouldn't have to watch. The Fifth Symphony, I learned today, is the piece he wrote to save his life and redeem his standing after being denounced. We arrived early enough that we could hear the guest conductor talk about this at the Concert Comments before the performance, but he gave a little precis to the main audience as well, particularly about the argument over the last section of the final movement -- is it the happy ending Stalin wanted, or is it bitter recapitulation and tragedy? Or is it both?
The performance was amazing, and as for the finale, I told K that it reminded me of nothing so much as that scene in the Star Trek reboot where Zachary Quinto accepts being kicked out of the Vulcan Academy, giving the Vulcan salute and saying "Live long and prosper" in such a simple tone that it clearly means the opposite. My most immediate comment was, "I never heard 'fuck you' spelled out with a timpani before!" My respect for Shostakovich has gone up several notches today.
Anyway, the point of this is that the guest conductor, Joshua Weilerstein, has a podcast called Sticky Notes, in which he deals with various pieces of the classical repertoire, interviews artists and musicians, introduces niche music to wider audiences, and is just generally cute and enthusiastic and well-informed. I listened to both parts 1 and 2 of the episodes about Shostakovich 5, and discovered that Weilerstein was indeed responsible for the KCS being seated differently than usual -- some aspects of this symphony, he said, are strengthened by having the orchestra in a particular configuration. Sadly, Weilerstein already has a job, or I would wish KCS would hire him when Michael Stern retires.
In sum,
nnozomi (and anyone else who finds this appealing), run don't walk to "Sticky Notes" if you haven't found it already. He has an episode about Bruckner's 7th!
