calimac

hostakovich who was almost always dour and who couldn't give a genuine smile in his music, only a grimace I would accept that for the major works, with the only partial exceptions being The Nose and the Ninth Symphony, though I would also say that some of those grimaces are authentically funny in their own sardonic way - the scherzos of the Eighth and Tenth symphonies and the Waltz of the Eighth Quartet. He is often funny as anything in the minor works, though: the ballets and the film scores and the orchestration of a Scarlatti sonata and Tahiti Trot and the waltzes for flute and piano. I actually think that he is more often delightful than Prokofiev.

MTT's disc of the Romeo and Juliet suites is very impressive btw. if not as good as Ancerl.