Just thinking about the starving musicians stuck in the city, only 17 of them were still alive by the time of the premier. Giving hope to everyone else stuck there, and also to the whole world. Now that's some ''Keep calm and carry on.'' They were real heroes. And Shostakovich was too. Shostakovich himself was actually a volunteer fire fighter during the siege of Leningrad. Like 8 levels of respect.
If you're interested, Sergey Baklykov made a video of his visit to Samara, Russia where Shostakovich lived and wrote the Seventh Symphony while Leningrad was under siege. The occasion was the 78th anniversary of the premiere of the symphony and a performance played by the same orchestra, the Bolshoi Theatre Orchestra. Here is the link: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-yF3p_w2PU14.html
Entire symphony is about totalitarism, only exemplified by Leningrad siege. As I read in biography, Shostakovitch started this work before Leningrad siege, and explained, that Hitler was just another face of evil, as well as Stalin was.
@@kociox Thanks for this important and very true perspective. Shostakovitch himself struggled with Marxist-Leninism -- he was enchanted by the ideals of communism but horrified as to how things actually transpired in the Soviet Union.
This German orchestra is one of my favorites. Playing the utmost resistance symbolic symphony of the Leningrad and Russia, The famous Shostakovitch No. 7 is remarkable. It is an amazing accomplishment, some 70 years later. Its is an out cry for humanity to unite, beyond their differences of the past, the WWII. Long Live the humanitarian spirit of Dmitri Shostakovitch.
@MrHallodri1 -- O My, Hallodri....You take No Prisoners, do you! Poor confused SirKuchen might have been entitled to some Restraint on your part...in cudgeling him for his misapprehension. But your Rage controls you....Greetings & Happy New Year from San Agustinillo!
This was written before the Germans invaded Russia. It's more about the insidious effect of Stalinism and the oppression of living under a totalitarian regime.
After reading the story of the composer Dimitri Shostaovich, I so admire his brillance and love for his people and Leningrad. It's amazing the power of music, and even though the audience who heard this for the first time, were dying of starvation, it gave them the hope and will to live on. Bravo Dimitri Bravo!!!
Dmitri Shostakovich said that his compositions were tombstones for his friends-what an honor to those who went through all the suffering-sometimes only music can describe it-what an awesome composer and GREAT performance-BRAVO ❤️❤️❤️
Thank you, all members of the Frankfurt Radio Symphony and Marin Alsop for giving me the chance to enjoy and appreciate the fruit of the hard work and musicianship you all bring to this performance. I have been listening to classical music for at least 60 years now, and the first time I heard this symphony was in the 1960s, from an acoustically inferior recording of a radio broadcast of the first performance outside Russia (so I read) conducted by Toscanini. I have since listened to all the symphonies by Shostakovich (preferred English spelling of his name) in various interpretations. This one, along with his 5th and 8th, just to name three, never fails to touch me in its expressions, in musical terms, of human suffering, endurance, brutality, pathos, absurdity, banality, passion, grotesqueness, memories of better days, beauty, love, peace, longing, spiritual rebirth and triumph . . . . Something like reading Dante's "Divine Comedy" or Shakespeare's great tragedies. This performance in Alsop's convincing interpretation is no exception. Again, my heartfelt thanks to the orchestra and to Maestro (Maestra?) Alsop.
Very well said! Read the book about Shostakovich by Julian Barnes, "The noise of time." Short but powerful. I wish everyone in the world would read it.
Dmitri Schostakowitsch! Beyond our understanding. Such a sensitivity for tragic and ability to express it through music. Frau Alsop, thank you! Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra, thank you all!
The story of how this symphony got to the New York Philharmonic is a story unto itself. (Look it up!) I love Shostakovich's dramatic moments, but I love the little quiet moments when he really gets lyrical. That man must have had a lot of love in his heart because it shows in the slow aspects of his orchestral works. Beautiful performance, Marin! You are the greatest.
Как же хорошо Шостакович передал звук надвигающейся угрозы. Сначала как будто где то далеко играет марш, но вот они все ближе и ближе, бои все яростнее и яростнее
i saw a documentary about this piece of music and the images from it linger withme and will do so all my life (i hope). i don't know enough about music to judge this particular performance but i love this symphony because of the struggle it represents, the hardship we can only imagine fed and alive as we are, but also for the sheer beauty of it.
WOW! Talk about delivering the goods. The ending builds and builds and builds with one rousing finale after another. Just astonishing. Knowing Shostakovitch's history and work, this swept me away in tears.
questa sinfonia fu scritta da Schostakovisch per la popolazione di Leningrado sotto assedio dei tedeschi per 3 anni e ora è una radio sinfonica tedesca che la trasmette: quando fu suonata sotto assedio fu trasmessa dagli altoparlanti per farla ascoltare ai tedeschi invasori e assalitori come monito che quella bellezza musicale sarebbe stata invincibile come il popolo russo.
What a simply wonderful symphony, full of all the range of emotions (from sublime beauty to heart-rending pathos, and everything in between). And as ever, an excellent performance from this truly exceptional orchestra - full of poise, tenderness, power and empathy for the power and feeling of the music.
what a powerful statement of liberty !!! very good interpretation musical and intensity in the meaning of this dramatic time of sufferance...never again please God, never again on any side of humanity
To understand this music, you need to first understand that Finland was incontestably involved (though people quibble about some details) in the siege of Leningrad. Secondly, that the main theme of the first movement comes straight out of Sibelius. You hear it in at least a couple place. For example, 2 minutes into Sibelius' 6th symphony.
I still can't hear the theme in Sibelius's 6th. Are you talking about the 22 bar theme repeated twelve times in the first movement of Shostakovich's 7th, starting about 7 minutes in? Or the very first theme in the symphony? And which bars would that be from Sibelius?
肖斯塔科维奇，个人最喜欢的音乐家之一。One of my favorite musicians，Shostakovich，have listened all of his music. Jazz Suit is also good，Symphony No.6，9 good two. Lady in Mtsensk good three.
125gr bánh mỳ/người/ngày , hàng triệu người chết đới,dịch bệnh,bom đạn, mấy trăm ngày thành phố bị bao vây ... ngay trong cuộc sống đó vẫn có Giao hưởng số 7-Leningrad của Dimitri Shottacovik,Bản nhạc vẫn vang lên từ thành phố rồi những nhạc công đó lại xông ra chiến tuyến . Tuyệt vời ,Những công dân Leningrad , Tuyệt vời Shottacovik & Giao hưởng số 7 ! Tôi quá thích thú , khi được nghe tác phẩm này do Dan nhạc Đài phát thanh Frankfurt do Nữ Chỉ huy !
Немцы конечно молодцы что взялись за Ленинградскую симфонию, но меня много больше впечатлило исполнение Приморского оркестра под управлением Антона Лубченко... там просто потрясающе исполнено... С душой до предела!!!
I've heard percussionists call this part "The Devil's Bolero". The 2 measure cadence that the snare drummer plays over the course of the next 10 minutes isn't really difficult, but it's one of the most exhausting (mentally and physically) 10 minutes of music for the snare drummer. You can't make a mistake during that part. One mis-stroke and the entire thing falls apart. You have to keep that cadence up while all hell is breaking loose around you. The cacophany that's attacking you is diametrically opposed to what you're playing and yet it fits marvelously. Shostakovich was an absolute genius.
I'm not a gifted listener, but I've enjoyed this orchestra's performances more than most others. Yes, there's a war behind this work; yet Shostakovich always sets me into a more contemplative mood. Perhaps odd when you imagine people freezing and starving to death. I love this performance. I'm hearing it 5 years later.
Excellent performance. Conducted by one of the best American conductors who is not well known. While the 5th (with the Bernstein interpretation) will always be my favorite, the 7th might be the greatest symphony ever written.
Neither is it the best symphony ever written, nor is it Shostakovich's best. Both the 8th and 10th are far superiour in structucring and compositional value.
Us musicians can be like that. haha I know - I have taught approx 25,000 music students since 1971 and have seen all the drama music students can create. Just retiring now - 2019.
I love how at 1:03:27 they decide to show just one trombone playing quarter notes or something instead of showing the strings literally fLYING UP THEIR INSTRUMENTS UGH
Having seen Marin conduct live, I can assure you she is anything but what organboi says. I have also seen the Leningrad performed live; an unforgettable concert experience. It may or may not be as strong a work as the DSCH'S 5th, or 8th, my personal favourite, but it's no failure. Wrong again organboi.
1.12.10 der Anfang einer der stärksten musikalischen Finale in der Polyphonie.Gänsehaut.Man hört den Schrei nach Freiheit und Leben. Väterchen Russland.
Молодцы музыканты: сумели тонко передать нюансы сложного произведения, особенно, ярко выраженную в мелодии гениального композитора холодную, решительную устремленность прусской военной машины к победе любой ценой, в том числе путем тотального уничтожения других народов и ценой утери человечности людьми, ставшими ее винтиками, а также отчаяние с нотками обреченности людей, пытающихся ей сопротивляться.
Relatively light-weight, modern performance of this masterpiece composed in the midst of the second World War, which makes me feel Shostakovich has long been a classic.
***** I don't think the lightness of this performance has come from the gender of conductor. In my opinion it comes from the collective attitude of performers to the composer. None of them either know the atrocity of WWII in person or recognize the gravity of this work at the time of its composition.
At a certain point there is just what the composer wrote--the notes and which instruments play them. How any player could make the piccolo part heavier" and more full of gravity is beyond me.
Thanks for your interesting opinion. But I still feel some kind of lightness with this modern performance, which makes it in a meaning more attractive than the other traditional performances of this symphony.
There are a number of female conductors around who, from the strength of what I've heard from them, are very much overrated for the obvious reasons. However, Marin Alsop, IMO, is most certainly not one of them. She has done wonders with the OSESP (Sao Paulo S.O.) placing it among the World's great orchestas.
It's a LIVE performance, for goodness's sake. L I V E . So we should get them to pay their money then stay at home?? I think you people should just listen to studio recordings.
I remember hearing Marin Alsop directing the Colorado Symphony Orchestra in the early 2000s. She rebuilt the orchestra after a disastrous reorganization. One of the best conductors conducting now!
One of the most monumental productions of the most apt musical composition which represents one of the greatest world war two atrocities ; the besieging of Leningrad.
This great war symphony has recently inspired a photo/poem book entitled Camera Symphonica: Scores of Love, Uprisings and Pandemic by Jaime Diaz Martinez. One reads in the introduction "the city of Paris would become Shostakovich's Leningrad, and the invader would take shape as plague and injustice. All these events would compose the sounds, cries and emotions that would lay forth the composition of this work". Shostakovitch is truly an inspiration for all sorts of artistic creations.
I really admire this performance. It may not be as dramatic as some but there's a truth that comes through and some wonderful inner details that are often lost. The first movement melody comes across as a song of defiance over the insesently repeated rythm. My particular favourite is Bernstein with Chicago. Possibly an interpretation that will never be surpassed.
