auditory companion

[calimac]

Two versions of the same music have been keeping me company while I slave over hot computer files in the middle of the night (due to my odd sleep patterns).

This is Shostakovich's eerie and ghostly Fifteenth Symphony.

(Check out also his other symphonies by this orchestra.)

This is Shostakovich's Fifteenth arranged for piano trio and three percussionists.

Comments

[cmcmck]

Oh yes!

Stunning!

[kate_schaefer]

Huh. Just the other day, I heard this symphony and remarked to Glenn that it's Shostakovich's funniest symphony, because quoting the William Tell Overture is always good for a laugh. Usually it's good for a cheap laugh, but Shostakovich's laughs are never cheap. Now I'm listening to this trio version. Interesting; it exposes all the structure of the symphony in a way that the full orchestration cannot.

Thanks.

[calimac]

I got a similar feeling of structural exposure listening to Franz Liszt's two-hand versions of Beethoven symphonies, especially the Eroica and the Fifth.

I have a theory as to what Shostakovich's quotations in the Fifteenth mean (there's also Wagner), but I'm keeping it to myself for now.