Tokyo Performances

Shostakovich Cycle - Part 3

The penultimate concert in the series took place on December 5 and featured the Nagoya Philharmonic Orchestra. The first work was the monumental Symphony #11, one of my favorites. It is long and somber, yet is has moments of great drama. I am curiously moved each time I hear it. It is subtitled "The Year 1905" and supposedly depicts the disastrous march on Palace Square that year. However, I first heard it in San Francisco conducted by Leonard Slatkin, when he addressed the audience beforehand and told his interpretation - that the symphony really portrays the Soviet quelling of the Hungarian uprising in the 50's. Of course, Shostakovich could not have said that in his program for the symphony, and it makes certain sense. In any event, it was an excellent performance despite the theatrics of the Maestro Inoue. Once again I sat in the balcony, where the sound was excellent.

This was followed by Symphony #12, which seems to be an attempt to redo the 11th. It seemed rather wan and forced, and it was curious to hear the two performed in succession, because it showed to me how inconsistent Shostakovich was as a syphonic composer.

The final concert was on December 9 and featured the New Japan Philharmonic, which Inoue led for several years. The first part of the program was Symphony #8. The first and third movements are engaging, but the fourth and fifth seem interminable. This was another one of his less successful works.

But, one of the highlights of the entire cycle was the last work, Symphony #15, his final symphony. It is full of humor and irony, and it is engaging from start to finish. And the finish is quite wonderful with clicking percussion - a clock-like machine winding down.

Kudos to Maestro Inoue for affording me the opportunity to hear all of the symphonies in a concentrated period of time. Although I do not admire his theatrical conducting style, the performances were excellent. The symphonies themselves are of varying interest to me. The successes are #4, #5, #9, #11 and #15. The failures are #1, #2, #3, #13, and #14. The others have moments of brilliance and stretches causing ennui.

posted by Larry Wells @ 9:24 PM 0 comments

Shostakovich Cycle - Part 2

What a difference a seat makes, and what a difference the orchestra makes.

The November 18 performances of Symphonies 9 and 14 marked a great change from the previous performances. Inoue was still his jittery, showy self at the podium, but this time the orchestra responded to him. The Hiroshima Symphony Orchestra played beautifully; and the exciting, coherent performance led me to believe that the Russians were having nothing to do with this upstart Japanese conductor trying to tell them how to perform their own cultural legacy. That may be why the previous performances were so lackluster and this one was so vibrant.

And, I finally moved from my main floor seat to one in the middle of the second tier where not only were the sight lines so much better but the sound was phenomenally better.

The Ninth is a great work, and I enjoyed every moment of it - the triumphal climax toward the end was stunning, and in terms of Shostakovich's excesses in the climaxes of other symphonies, this one seemed exactly right.

The 14th is not my favorite work - so dark and mysterious. The singing by Anna Shafajinskaya and Sergei Aleksashkin was excellent, the playing by the strings was wonderful - but I can go a long time before hearing it again.

For the performance of the Fourth symphony on December 1, I again sat in the second tier where the sound was excellent. The loud parts were really LOUD, too. I love this symphony - such a vast step forward from the first three. Stalin apparently didn't like it and cause all sorts of trouble for Shostakovich as a result. I remember its American recording premiere by Bernstein wasn't until the mid-60's although the symphony was completed in 1936. It is a stunning work, which goes to show that a Georgian peasant turned mass-murdering despot shouldn't be doing music criticism. The performance was so engaging that I hardly noticed Inoue mugging and jumping around. The Tokyo Philharmonic played with panache and elan.

posted by Larry Wells @ 10:04 PM 0 comments