Emily Anthony rehearsing with Sam Hollister
Violinist Emily Anthony is a familiar face in Rhode Island and around New England. We are excited to have her playing for our first event, CONTRASTS, today at 2pm at North Kingstown! The following is a version of her upcoming comments at today's concert.
Shostakovich had a very difficult and complex relationship with the Soviet government. The authorities allowed him to live and to compose but made his life miserable at every turn. Indeed, the story of Shostakovich fits into our theme of Contrasts, because there was, on the one hand, the outward, public man—a loyal and patriotic son of the Soviet Union, who said and did as he was told by the government—and then its opposite-, the interior man who was able, in his many profound and serious works, to express all the anguish, irony, and bitterness that he felt toward the Soviet regime.
Born in St. Petersburg in 1906, Shostakovich early on showed extraordinary talent, both as a pianist and a composer. His famous teacher Glazunov called the young musician a second Mozart; indeed, he composed entirely in his head before putting the ideas on paper, and rarely required a first or 2nd draft. His 1st symphony, composed as a student work, vaulted him into fame with its premier in 1926. He thereafter wrote prodigiously—orchestral music, a ballet score, and an opera. But as Stalin solidified power, the Soviet government became increasingly repressive. The authorities did not like Shostakovich’s music. As his work became more modern and dissonant, Shostakovich was accused of “musical formalism”. He was labeled an “enemy of the people”; much of his work was banned, disappearing from the repertoire until the 1960s. He was expected to write music that would glorify the working man—music to uplift the masses, and to reflect glory on the Soviet regime.
In 1936, Stalin attacked the highly successful Shostakovich opera, Lady Macbeth, as having “hooting and bleating” sounds, and from that time on, Shostakovich lived in perpetual fear. He saw his friends, musicians, artists, theater directors and actors, all being taken away either for execution or hard labor in the gulag. At home, Shostakovich slept near the doorway with his bag packed, so that if and when the secret police came for him at night, he could leave without awakening his family.
In 1937 Shostakovich wrote his famous 5th Symphony, a work that achieved his “rehabilitation”. This was a magnificent work by any standard, it’s brilliant, brass instrument finale a paen to victory, Stalin, and the “new Russia”. Of course, Shostakovich described his work this way with a gun to his head. He later said in private interview that the joy in this 5thsymphony was a sham, enforced on pain of death by outside authority.
It was around this time, 1936-37, that Shostakovich turned to writing film music. This put food on the table, as Shostakovich was not even allowed to teach; moreover, Stalin favored film music, as it did not contain any dangerous personal expression. Shostakovich hated the film work, probably because he was forced to do it. However, he wrote over 40 film scores, with The Gadfly as perhaps his most famous.
To supplement his income and keep his name before the public, Shostakovich asked his friend Lev Atovmian, a film director and script writer, to arrange suites of his film and ballet music for home and school performance. The Five Pieces is one such suite, a collection arranged for two violins and piano, and for our performance, Sam has transcribed the 2nd violin part for clarinet. The expressive Prelude is taken from the Gadfly, and the other movements are from various ballet Suites. In this music we hear a less familiar Shostakovich—the music is beautiful and straightforward, unmarked by the fear and anger in so much of his later work, and without the dissonance so abhorred by Stalin.
Despite his frequent bouts with the Soviet authorities, Shostakovich was one of the most prolific 20th century composers, producing 15 symphonies, 6 concertos, 4 operas, 15 string quartets, 5 other major chamber works, 24 preludes and fugues for the piano, and several song cycles. When he died, he was called by Brezhnev “the great composer of our time” and the “hero of the Soviet people”. Robert Greenburg, in his wonderful biography, said that “if Shostakovich were here with us now, he would tell us that he was no hero; in the Soviet Union, heroes died young. Shostakovich," says Greenburg, "was a survivor and a witness, his music a testament to what he saw and felt, in a world that we can hardly imagine.”