Customer Reviews

Jazz Suites 1 & 2

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I'm astonished that no one has reviewed this CD (until now) which came out over a year ago. It is an astonishingly assured set of performances by the youngish cellist turned conductor, Dmitry Yablonsky, and the Russian State Orchestra. (And, even better, there is a DVD-Audio of these same performances that just came out and it is in superb surround sound. Yeehaw!)

This is Shostakovich at his most accessible. It's all jazzy, tuneful, interestingly orchestrated (he does things with the xylophone that he must have picked up from watching cartoons with music by Carl Stallings--do you suppose?). And there are some saxophone licks that couldn't have been composed by anyone but a Russian (although, the idea came to me after imagining in my mind's ear the saxophone solos in Musorgsky's 'Pictures at an Exhibition' and the most familiar orchestration of THAT is by a Frenchman, Ravel--oh, well, the TUNE is Russian).

This is, in fact, music that Shostakovich wrote in imitation of American popular music. [In fact, 'Tahiti Trot' is his take of Vincent Youmans's 'Tea for Two.'] There's even a Sousa march in the first Jazz Suite. And he gets it all almost right and inimitably Shostakovian as well. It's right enough that American listeners will probably be fooled--if they listen to it without knowing the composer--into believingt it had to be by someone like Ferde Grofe or Gershwin or even Leroy Anderson.

My point is this: this is Shostakovich's happiest, bounciest, most accessible music. And on top of that it's beautifully written and performed. I don't know what you're waiting for.

I had my wife waltzing around the listening room just a few days ago to a new recording of waltzes by Lehar. But I grabbed her again when I'd cranked this one up and we waltzed and polka'd and even tango'd. It's impossible to resist.

Recommended heartily. And even more so, if you've got the equipment for it, I recommend the new DVD-Audio version.

Scott Morrison

This is as great CD to have among your favorites. At times romantic, mysterious, sensual, happy, melancholic, funny! I recommend this work to anybody who likes different music! You play it once and you want to play it again...Thanks..A. Cortes

We heard this music played on a Sprint Ad on television and hunted it down. We found the entire recording to be a delight!

I've highly enjoyed this brilliant collection of Shostakovich. Recommended to every music lover!

This is some great music from the youthful days of Soviet composer Dmitri Shostakovich (1906-1975). The music reveals a light-hearted, energenic, creative and witty imagination. It is very unlike some of the later works of Shostakovich which are heavy, tragic, bombastic and over-blown (i.e. the 7th, 8th, 10th and 11th symphonies). Even though, these are "jazz" suites, they are really only slightly tinged with jazz characteristics. The essence of the these works (including "The Bolt") are Shostakovich in a mode that is a little wild and crazy. The performance seemed to also be quite capable. In the past few years I have come to rely on the Naxos label as the recordings are done by capable (though not famous) musicians.

Well, the music here doesn't (apart from some intriguing touches) sound very much like Shostakovich. Nor does it sound very much like jazz either - one would be excused for suspecting that that Shostakovich's access to jazz music might have been rather limited, and the music here certainly suggests so. In short, this is a rather curious disc of light music, but a mildly enjoyable one nonetheless.

The first Jazz suite is a minor work. There are some nice tunes there, but it is seriously short on genuine inspiration and displays none of the wit of some of Shostakovich's other work in the light genre (and virtually no jazz influence either, as already mentioned). Now, the so-called Jazz suite no. 2 isn't really Jazz suite no. 2 either (that one was lost during WWII), but really the Suite no. 1 for Variety Stage Orchestra. The booklet lays out the story behind it, but the title is still misleading. It was composed in the 1930s, or rather compiled from his film-score tunes and is a slight work in all respects - even though it too sports some nice, hummable tunes - obviously written with no other inspiration than the impending payment. The orchestration of Youmans's Tea for Two, Tahiti Trot, adds a modicum of dark wit, but isn't anything one would want to hear more than once.

The music for the ballet The Bolt is in another league altogether. Yes, it is also "light music" (but there is a serious, dark undercurrent to it), and several of the numbers are based on popular music styles, but this drunkenly boisterous and sometimes razor sharp music leaves a strong impression and is by far the best work on the disc.

The Russian State SO under Yablonsky plays well, and adds swagger and wit to the music. Sound quality is clear and sufficiently spacious (critics might claim it is a little too close). Unfortunately, in the Bolt these players are in the end really no match for Järvi on DG. As for the rest, well, this constitutes a mildly interesting and enjoyable disc, one that deserves to be heard once. But it is far from any mandatory purchase

A truly excellent CD from the performance and recording quality point of view. Friends who have heard it agree.