The Shostakovich 8th Quartet is one of the finest of the genre. It has also been scored for a small string orchestra, available on a very good Delos hybrid SACD. Don't have any recommendations of the string quartet version, yet; hoping others will come through here, as I've heard some recently that I want to get but can't remember the artists (it was an older recording). Shostakovich, one of the finest composers of the 20th century, had an interesting life as an artist trying to express himself in Russia under the oppressive Stalin regime; you should do some reading up on him to fully understand the struggles he had to go through. Other brooding, hair-raising works of his would include his 4th and 11th symphonies; his first (in my view, possibly his best--written when he was 18) and 5th symphonies are more accessible and well-known. His symphonies run the gamut from the brooding to the joyful and light-hearted. Well worth listening to his works and expanding your musical universe.
Shostakovich...WHOA
An old g/f made a copy of a Shostakovich recording and until this week I’d never gotten around to it. MAN, is this guy giving me nightmares. I don’t know a damn thing about classical music but HOLY CHRISTMAS!
I can’t call up the old g/f to ask (I want to live, I want to live!) so I’m hoping someone can ID this recording and then offer suggestions to similar Shostakovich. I’m looking for brooding, scary, intense, hair-raising chaos…just like what’s-her-name.
The recording I was given has the following handwritten on it: “Kammersinfornie (after) string Quartet #8 & #10.” “1960” is also written on the recording with an arrow from it pointing to “Quartet #8.” The track most indicative of what I like is #2 whatever that is.
What’s this guy’s rep in the classical world, anyway? Maybe the style of this recording isn’t representative of his work.
As an interesting side note…this girl was always giving me really twisted material as witnessed by the title of the last book she gave me: “The Insanity of Normality – Realism as Sickness: Toward Understanding Human Destructiveness.” An army of red flags popped up with that one but I valiantly forged ahead with my little pea shooter anyway (please excuse the disgusting and humiliating metaphor.) I got clobbered.
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- 28 posts total
- 28 posts total