As was the case with the French composers, three Russian composers are taken into account in the anthology of recordings made by Simon Rattle with the Berlin Philharmonic. In chronological order of birth, those composers are Sergei Rachmaninoff, Sergei Prokofiev, and Dmitri Shostakovich. However, among the three of them, there are only six compositions; and Shostakovich is “leader of the pack” with three of them. Rachmaninoff has a single CD all to himself with two works, and Prokofiev is represented only by his first violin concerto (on an album that gives “top billing” to violinist Sarah Chang)!
The Saint Petersburg Conservatory, probably as it appeared when Shostakovich was a student (photograph by Karl Bulla, public domain, from Wikimedia Commons)
The Shostakovich selections are particularly interesting, since they serve as “snapshots” of different periods in his career. Indeed, his first symphony (Opus 10 in F minor), was completed in 1925 when he was nineteen years old. He had composed it as his graduation piece at the Petrograd Conservatory (which is now the Saint Petersburg Conservatory). At the other end of his career, his fourteenth (next to last) symphony (Opus 135 in G minor) was first performed in September of 1969, having been completed in the spring of that year. Between these “bookends,” the Opus 77 (first) violin concerto in A minor was completed in 1948; but, due to the composer’s denunciation by the Zhdanov Doctrine, the premiere performance did not take place until October 29, 1955, by which time Shostakovich and David Oistrakh had worked on several revisions.
As a result, to some extent, these selections can be approached as “snapshots” from an autobiography. Opus 10 practically overflows with ambitious confidence; and it is clear that the composer had no idea how many “hammer blows” (with a nod to the biography of Gustav Mahler) he would have to endure. Nevertheless, Opus 135 bears witness to the composer’s strength in endurance; but this is far from your usual symphony. It was scored for soprano (Karita Mattila), bass (Thomas Quasthoff), and a small string orchestra with percussion. Technically speaking, the music would be better classified as a cantata, since each of its eleven movements is a setting of a poem, all translated into Russian from texts by Federico García Lorca, Guillaume Apollinaire, Wilhelm Küchelbecker, and Rainer Maria Rilke. Nevertheless, the composer always has the last word on how each of his compositions is named! This departure from convention can also found in the composer’s decision to provide descriptive titles to his concerto movements (rather than tempo markings): Nocturne, Scherzo, Passacaglia, Burlesque. Taken as a whole, these three “snapshots” provide an informative perspective on the composer’s career.
The Rachmaninoff CD has a similar biographical perspective. It begins with “The Bells” (Opus 35), which is usually described as a “choral symphony.” When that description was applied to Ludwig van Beethoven’s Opus 125 in D minor, the “choral” portion was limited to the final movement. In “The Bells” all four of the movements are “choral,” with solo vocal parts in three of those movements. The first movement features a tenor (Dmytro Popov), the second a soprano (Ľuba Orgonášová), and the last a bass (Mikhail Petrenko). While the title was taken from the poem by Edgar Allan Poe, the text is a Russian adaptation by Konstantin Balmont; and any suggestion of Poe’s rhythms is purely coincidental! In my distant past I seem to recall a recording of the Philadelphia Orchestra that tried to accommodate Poe’s original words, and the impact of that experience led to my avoiding that music for quite some time!
Opus 35 is coupled with Opus 45, given the title Symphonic Dances. It is the only work composed in its entirely in the United States, completed in October of 1940. Rachmaninoff corresponded with Michel Fokine about creating choreography, but Fokine died in August of 1942. Several choreographers have tried to set this music. I seem to recall having seen a performance of the Bat-Dor Dance Company that left me cold. Nevertheless, I have been listening to this music since my high school days, and it still gets the juices flowing!
The Prokofiev concerto (Opus 19 in D major) gets far less attention than Opus 63 in G minor. (Prokofiev composed only those two.) It receives relatively little attention. Unless I am mistaken, my only previous encounter came from the Violin Masterclass anthology of recordings made by David Oistrakh. My guess is that Rattle chose to add this to his repertoire because it had been so neglected; but I fear that, where “public opinion” is concerned, there is more than a little reasoning behind that neglect!
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