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20 of 20 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
The film gets you much closer to understanding Shostakovich as a person as well as a composer and the influences which the very difficult Stalin years had on his life and music. The insight given by Valery Gergiev is invaluable. The film also includes interviews with his friends, fellow composers as well as his daughter. The bonus audio tracks of movements from symphonies 4 to 9 conducted by Gergiev are excellent.
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD|Amazon Verified Purchase
This 1997 film by Larry Weinstein is now released on DVD. It considers the relationship between Russia's greatest (in my opinion) composer and its tyrannical leader during the period of his rule. Thus we have symphonies four, five, seven, eight, and nine under the spotlight, but inexplicably neither number six, nor the mighty tenth - where after his death Stalin is supposedly portrayed in the scherzo. Shostakovich claimed, "My symphonies are tombstones"; they are a soundtrack to the twentieth century.
What makes this film of more than passing interest is that there is no narrator. Apart from occasional readings from Shostakovich's `testimony' (edited by Solomon Volkov), the story is told by people who were either present in these times, or knew the composer well in later years, or have something cogent and meaningful to say about the music. I particularly liked the ironic toast that the composer proposed strictly amongst close friends: "Let's drink to life not getting any better". The composer's daughter Galina appears, but not Maxim, his son. One friend who was present at the premier of the fifth symphony says of the experience that "Finally we have heard the music which we wanted to hear." We hear from an oboist who played at the Leningrad premiere of the seventh symphony, and we even see an elderly Tikhon Khrennikov, claiming not to have written the speech that damned Shostakovich's music for some years in the eyes of the regime.
Naturally, there is much anti-Stalinism expressed by many of the interviewees, but one wonders whether that would be repeated today in a Russia seemingly keen to rehabilitate the great dictator. Paradoxically, Valery Gergiev argues that Stalin's pressure on Shostakovich worked for the better in terms of the music that he composed.
There is much archive film included, from Stalin's annual May Day parades to Leningrad during the siege; from Shostakovich walking the streets to him sitting at the piano and talking about his seventh symphony; from trains carrying prisoners to labour camps the meeting of the 1948 National Congress of Composers.
The soundtrack is liberally supplied with excerpts from Shostakovich's music, the editing so well done that the music is never intrusive nor out-of-place. As well as the symphonies, Lady Macbeth of Mtensk is featured, as is some of Shostakovich's film music.
The DVD comes with some extras: audio extracts from the fourth to ninth symphonies, Shostakovich's radio broadcast from Leningrad during the siege, a chronology, and some trailers.
This DVD is worthy of five stars.
What makes this film of more than passing interest is that there is no narrator. Apart from occasional readings from Shostakovich's `testimony' (edited by Solomon Volkov), the story is told by people who were either present in these times, or knew the composer well in later years, or have something cogent and meaningful to say about the music. I particularly liked the ironic toast that the composer proposed strictly amongst close friends: "Let's drink to life not getting any better". The composer's daughter Galina appears, but not Maxim, his son. One friend who was present at the premier of the fifth symphony says of the experience that "Finally we have heard the music which we wanted to hear." We hear from an oboist who played at the Leningrad premiere of the seventh symphony, and we even see an elderly Tikhon Khrennikov, claiming not to have written the speech that damned Shostakovich's music for some years in the eyes of the regime.
Naturally, there is much anti-Stalinism expressed by many of the interviewees, but one wonders whether that would be repeated today in a Russia seemingly keen to rehabilitate the great dictator. Paradoxically, Valery Gergiev argues that Stalin's pressure on Shostakovich worked for the better in terms of the music that he composed.
There is much archive film included, from Stalin's annual May Day parades to Leningrad during the siege; from Shostakovich walking the streets to him sitting at the piano and talking about his seventh symphony; from trains carrying prisoners to labour camps the meeting of the 1948 National Congress of Composers.
The soundtrack is liberally supplied with excerpts from Shostakovich's music, the editing so well done that the music is never intrusive nor out-of-place. As well as the symphonies, Lady Macbeth of Mtensk is featured, as is some of Shostakovich's film music.
The DVD comes with some extras: audio extracts from the fourth to ninth symphonies, Shostakovich's radio broadcast from Leningrad during the siege, a chronology, and some trailers.
This DVD is worthy of five stars.
22 of 23 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD|Amazon Verified Purchase
The build up and witnesses to the performance of the Seventh Symphony in Leningrad brings tears into ones eyes. Death, starvation sheer Hell! - yet intense love of music in the face of it all. Brings it all home to you with vivid realism! This documentary has sharpend the intensity of feelings I have when listening to any of the many Shostakovich works I already know. I now know why the little old ladies flock to the concert hall in the former Soviet Union when Shostakovich is played!
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Shostakovich dvd
Very informative DVD a must for Shostakovich fans
Well laid out and good sound value for money what more can you ask for
Well laid out and good sound value for money what more can you ask for
Published 4 months ago by A. M. Duncan
Excellent
A fascinating study of Shostakovich's life and work between 1935 and 1948 through his symphonies 4-9. Some footage I have never seen before. Read more
Published on 29 Jun 2007 by C. Parslow
Shostakovich in History
This DVD is a gem in the universe of relatively few "must have" DVDs in the classical music world. Combining images to music can be very intrusive for some listeners, as myself,... Read more
Published on 25 May 2006 by J. M. Ribeiro
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