Dmitri Shostakovich playing Symphony 7 (Leningrad)

[zhongjinshu1]

not only was he a smoker but also a heavy vodka drinker, up to his death in 1975. strange isn`t it, how some of the greatest minds such as dimitri shostakovich, ernest hemingway and bertold brecht shared the same hobbys of enjoying booze and tobaco

[SnowClouds810]

I love him and his musical emotions... Great Shostakovich

[JamesraynorII]

in Soviet Russia the music sonducts Shostakovich

[amz392]

my friends grandpa once said..."when they introduced colors, everything became nothing more than dull" lol this is kind of true...

[daisies53]

This has made me cry it is wonderful! I adore pieces of history but sometimes I find that my heart cannot take too much more! I recognised immediately who is narrating it! I used to serve him years ago when doing a fun job! Thank you for this!

[Bobs482]

In Soviet Russia, music writes you!

[Pandorakelleher]

phenomenal dissident composer...beyond brave, all things considered.

[Pandorakelleher]

phenomenal dissident composer....beyond brave.

[dicthash]

You western guys are quite stupid as for Russian history. For example you consider Stalin being a communist while it is Stalin who executed most of hardcore communists in 1938-1940. In fact Stalin was a real Russian nationalist.

[nesiotivaj]

@dicthash And your beloved Stalin was really something! He killed about 30 million of his own people. Of course all of them were ‘enemies of the state’, so it was completely justified. What a great past!

[nateman09]

@dicthash execution is still bad.... try another argument

[PhotonSherades]

Genius is still around today - we just need to admit that the social mechanism which suppresses individuality has been perfected, thereby successfully abolishing any chance of genius from reaching its rightful, wider audience. By its very nature genius challenges the current modes of thinking, and it is this unsavory fact which has led to its very successful suppression in modern media. For example - name one artist from the last two decades which will be remembered in fifty years.

[DJNotNais]

look at that badass mofo smokin that cig after finishing his masterpiece. what a gangster

[infidel94]

the geniuses we have these days are all into education such as math or science. but back then or even deeper in history most geniuses were into art, music, and literature

[Ahelphand]

no that's not Shostakovich at the end, that's the infamous Ivan the Terrible accent that all Russian speakers fall under in the eyes of foreigners. Shostakovich's voice was delicate.

[atirisdes]

he was so talented that when he composed string quartet no. 15 he was already dead

[katerosk]

Another genius man that loves communism... and then they told you that communism is bad.... poor low IQ people.

[dhaddox]

@katerosk LOL He hated communism. Mocking of the soviets was pervasive in his music.

[dicthash]

@dhaddox

Yes, Shosty was a Russian patriot. That's why he backed Stalin's terror against antirussian communists in 1938-1939.

[dhaddox]

@dicthash I'm not sure where you're getting that. As I understand it, Shostakovich's apparent support of Stalin was sarcasm known to all but Stalin himself, and was done only to avoid the gulag. The final note of the 5th symphony was the one that saved his life.

[nateman09]

@dhaddox youre right the entire symphony was far too liberal and creative for the ussr government, it was only the final page of the movement with its loud and boisterous brass and simple eight-note percussion that made it an "acceptable" piece. Little did they know he was cleverly mocking them.

[nesiotivaj]

@katerosk Shostakovich hated the ruling communist party and Stalin. Alot of his friends, like Meyerhold, were killed by them.

The Leningrad Shostakovich reportedly had in mind was not the one that withstood the German siege. Rather, it was the one "that Stalin destroyed and Hitler merely finished off."

[dicthash]

@nesiotivaj

Oh mein Gott. Another one brainwashed asshole. Shosty was absolutely out of politics. Meyerhold wasn't Shosty's friend. They were acquainted. Meyerhold was executed absolutely justly. Just read unbiased investigations.

[nesiotivaj]

@dicthash You should be very proud still living under dictatorship! And judging from your spelling you’re quite affiliated with another famous nationalistic regime where all executions were very ‘justified’. Have a nice life in your ‘free’ country, follow the national habit of getting drunk every day, and take pride in your ‘heroic past’ under Stalin. The best thing will be if your borders get sealed again so the rest of us wouldn’t be bothered with exemplars of your sort.

[nesiotivaj]

@katerosk In 1948 Shostakovich, along with many other composers, was again denounced for formalism in the Zhdanov decree. Most of his works were banned, he was forced to publicly repent, and his family had privileges withdrawn. Yuri Lyubimov says that at this time "he waited for his arrest at night out on the landing by the lift, so that at least his family wouldn't be disturbed."

[MEGAGOONTROCITY]

nashestvie



[CuteLittleJazzBaby]

i looove schostakowitsch !!

[classiccandle27]

Wow~~

[Maryak12]

He should have recorded all of his piano music.

[PENNSY671E]

Priceless.

[TheShostakovich]

Great Shostakovich!

[392023001]

where did you get this video?

[armitageshankovich]

Where did you get the six minute video with the 8th Symphony?

[armitageshankovich]

No, that is not DDS speaking at the end. An English speaking narrator from Shostakovich v Stalin - The War Symphonies.

[jezmuff]

Is it just me or was there no playing by schostakovich whatsoever there?

[ReignOfPraine]

So, Shostakovich is the one speaking english near the end of this clip?

[Will170392]

Shostakovich was a genius, to think a man like that had such a difficult life is heartbreaking for me - rest in peace shostakovich

[julieno7426]

I feel the same thing.

[JustJim70118]

@Will170392 I think he ranks as one of the best composers not just of the 20th Century, but of all time. I'd easily place him in my top 20 if not top 15 or higher.

[som1112]

@Will170392 His music would have lost a bit of its true emotion if it wasn't for his difficult life. He was able to convey the true emotions he was feeling, which wouldn't have been possible had he not personally had those feelings and emotions. His difficult life is what made his music great.

[Pandorakelleher]

@Will170392 phenomenal dissident composer...beyond brave, all things considered.

[redword2007]

@Pandorakelleher

Shostakovich was an exemplary communist and an inspiration to those who shared his revolutionary views.

[nateman09]

@redword2007 he openly protested communism... check your sources again

[redword2007]

@nateman09

Lots of people claim that he was opposed to communism, but no one to my knowledge claims that he did this "openly" as you claim. Can you give an example?

If you want a balanced and evidence-based view of his attitudes towards communism I reccommend 'Shostakovich, A Life' by Laurel E Fay.

[nateman09]

@redword2007 you're right i suppose, he did not do it "openly". I just know many people who believe that he mocked the russian communist regime in a more acceptable way. if you listen to the fifth symphony, his style is very liberal for the era and for the audience he intended it for. In the final bars it ends with a boisterous chorus of brass and simple percussion rythms that over-accentuate what the russian communist gov't deemed acceptable. I believe it is an elegant and beautiful protest.

[redword2007]

@nateman09

It would be foolish to claim that artists (including Shostakovich) in the Soviet Union didn't have a difficult relationship with the government. During a revolution arts and culture must be mobilised as a weapon of class struggle and it is inevitable that artists - as single minded people with a clear creative vision - may resent this at times. But Shostakovich's problems were with the government, not with his revolutionary principles that sustained him throughout his life.

[nateman09]

@redword2007 I like how you defined artists. That was very well put. Politics aside, i really do appreciate what Shostakovitch has contributed to Russian classical music. There is just something about it that gives me goosebumps and inspires me. I suppose that is what was intended.

[redword2007]

@nateman09

The quality of his work is something that we can certainly agree on. It ranges from vast and inspirational symphonies to the most exquisite works for string quartet.

Have you seen the version 'Battleship Potemkin' by Sergei Eisenstein that uses works by Shostakovich as the musical score? It is truly extraordinary.

[Lonegan63]

Tu sí que eres imbécil que te tragas las patrañas sobre Shostakovich

[leontud]

what a Genius!we dont make them anymore these days.

[GBoCookies]

Sure we do. It's just the nature of them to be reclusive and repressed by the inferior non-inspired society.

[mehandas]

give names, please I'm interested to hear good contemprory compositions.

Does anyone know where you can get the piano transcriptions of shosta's symphonies?

[BrucknerMotet]

To me, what makes Dmitri great is his great admiration for a man whose compositional powers Dmitri felt were limited and trapped in an early age, incapable of growth. A man Dmitri's peers could easily have pigeonholed as a fuddy-duddy, but who sparked Dmitri's soul with his tasteful modesty and humanistic zeal. Glazunov. A man who didn't tell anyone except his close friends in sauced semi-confidence that his "orchestration" of Borodin's third symphony was basically a "complete recreation."

[edgar0001]

This may provoke some brainwashed, but I think Shostakovich was in Music what Stalin was in politics: Great.

[nfajkblg]

lol.. stalin.. lol.. what! That's highly amusing if you're taking the piss, if you're not i'll agree with what the other fella said. Stalin was responsible for a lot of deaths in russia during his time..

[crazypianistik]

This video is amazing. Shostakovich eto genyi, vilichayushe. Spaseebo shavkatik.

[gnolti]

Smoking will kill you (and did). Still, great clip.

[Gonnakillyou]

Wrong bud, it MIGHT.

[TomSaunders89]

And it feels good!

[gnolti]

Dmitri at the end of his life was a medical nightmare: Lung cancer, heart disease, and Lou Gehrig's -- all at once.

[Gonnakillyou]

Churchill not though and he was quite the happy smoker.

[ecwaufisxtreme]

Shosty's got a squeaky voice.

[clberka]

Of course he loved his home country, and yes, he wrote music to commemorate specific events in Russian history. Makes him a pretty smart guy, don't you think? There's nothing that gives me quite the chuckle as the finale of the sixth symphony. He was trying a little TOO hard to be "happy."

[VonRichter]

RE: shavkatikk:

I know Shostakovich's story well. All I am saying is that he is above all a great composer, and we wouldn't be sitting here talking about him or likely even know he existed if he wasn't a great composer. Regardless of any extra-musical associations in the 10th symphony, for example, the piece is first and foremost a masterpiece of musical thinking. It's just as powerful for a listener regardless of their knowledge of his biography. Music speaks far louder than any words.

[VonRichter]

Shostakovich's music is of a power above all mere nations and transient ideologies. People with differing socio-political ideas might use his music to support their various ideas, but at the end of the day, it's all dust in the wind compared to his genius.

[SeptSongs]

Shostakovich was a great humanist and a great artist - Jesus? Well, the jury's out whether he he even existed - the irony of this association is that Shostakovich himself was an atheist like so many of the greatest composers.

[Perodicticus]

SeptSongs, if "Testimony" is the authentic work of Shostakovich, then his remarks there make your labelling him a "great humanist" quite ironic. ("Don't believe humanists, citizens, don't believe prophets, don't believe luminaries -- they'll fool you for a penny. ... Their cosy life as famous humanists is what they hold most dear. That means they can't be taken seriously.")

[SeptSongs]

Perodicticus, your comment is brilliant and very funny. I had forgotten those words - it's been too many years since i read Testimony. But I do think that Shostakovich irefers to those who are pronounced (or who pronounce themselves ) as great Humanists, whereas I see DS to be a humanist in the true meaning of the word and in a quiet humble sense - other composers who fall into this realm are Brahms, Ravel, Weill-these were humane, civilized people full of integrity and without platitudes

[VTtrumpet09]

In no way does Shostakovich really compare to Jesus.

[hiccupofirony]

I'm sure Jesus would have believed in his heart that Shostakovich had God's love radiating from him. We must see eachother as ourselves, and we are worthy of God's love indeed. Anything else is egotistical, dualistic; murder and hate.

[namotac]

As far as music goes, he does.

[beangerman]

I hate the USSR, Love Shost (who suffered greatly under Russian communism)... long live free and independent republics:)

[MRostropovich]

You are an ignorant mother fucker.

[allabilli]

wich free independent republic? where?

my dear friend , keep your feet on the ground,

no one is free ! its a illusion.

[TrCellist]

I love USSR ı love lenin ı love Shostakovich I hate capitalizm and faschism

[iliassh]

Idiot.

[radarjamer]

How can you love the USSR and Shostakovich at the same time? The despair in his work was ALL the fault of the communist regime (have you listened to the fifth?), which was started BY Lenin, who was an imperialist! His book was called "Imperialism, the Highest State of Capitalism". Millions of my people were killed because of the communists who took over Russia. And by the way, capitalism is not spelled with a "z", and fascism is not spelled with an "h".

[VICTORMANUELMORALES]

That video is amazing!