Customer Reviews

Keeping Score-Shostakovich: Symphony No. 5 [Blu-ray]

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In 1924 Lenin died and Joseph Stalin, named as one member of a troika to rule the Soviet Union, took sole power as leader of the country despite Lenin's earlier warnings. In the early 1930s, Stalin launched his disastrous collective farming plan, which resulted in six million deaths from starvation in the Ukraine alone. In the late 1930s, Stalin launched his Great Purge, which resulted in the imprisonment of thousands of citizens in Gulag labor camps. No sector of society was spared this punishment and many artists were targeted.
In 1936, Shostakovich fell from favor after his opera Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District was sharply critizised by Stalin and the Communist Party apparatus. Fearing for his life, Shostakovich composed his triumphant Fifth Symphony, which brought him back into favor with Stalin and the Party.
But was the Fifth really what it seemed? Michael Tilson Thomas dissects the symphony and shows that Shostakovich, taking a cue from Mahler's Fourth Symphony, was secretly mocking the Stalin regime by changing a few notes from the expected major key to a minor key.
Thomas presents newsreel footage of the 1930s to illustrate the fear that pervaded Stalin's reign and interviews artists from that age who tell what it was like to live under Stalin's rule.
A complete performance of the Fifth Symphony follows.

I'm not a musician or particularly knowledgeable about music so I suppose this DVD was targeted at someone like me. I have watched two DVD's in the series "Keeping Score" the first being the Tchaikovsky 4th and now this the Shostakovich 5th. The tone of the first was playful and very enjoyable & I learnt a lot about how the composer put together his 4th symphony. This current DVD was in stark counterpoint to that in that the stakes for Shostakovich were those of life and death. I really learnt a lot from listening to Michael Tilsen Thomas's explaination of the background and reasoning behind the 5th Symphony of Shostakovich & I thought the performance of the piece as part of the 2007 Proms was outstanding. I want to see and hear more - Mahler's 1st, Brahms' 2nd, Sibelius' 4th all would be welcome additions to this series. Many thanks SF Symphony and MTT.

MTT's lucid, lyrical analysis conspires with spectacular cinematography and sound to create one of the finest classical music videos ever made--an inspiring work that surpasses even the justly famous television studies contributed by such earlier titans as Leonard Bernstein and Glenn Gould. If you've been wondering how far your HDTV/surround system can take you, look no further.

The blu-ray DVD fulfills the promise of high tech to present music with great playback and video. If there is a reason to own high def equipment, this is it! What a sterling performance by the SF Symphony at Royal Albert Hall in London in a live performance on Sept 1, 2007. Magnificent!!!!! And, the lecture is absolutely wonderful. I think Maestro Thomas has re-invented the symphony orchestra: explain the music and then give the excellent concert. You must get this DVD! What a joy

Shostakovich lived through Stalins purges. He virtually destroyed the officer corp, by having many of them shot before the Second world war. His great five year plans caused thousands to die of starvation. Also,people simply disappeared. In 1936 after Stalin had seen the opera, Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk,( traditional opera conducted by Conlon, modern by Jansons, both on bluray),a article was printed in Pravada condemning him and his work. Shostakovich thought he was going to be taken away and shot. He slept on the stairs so his family would not have to see this happen. He did have to visit the authorities. When he returned the next day, the person who was going to interview him was himself taken away,so he survived. He wrote the 5th Symphony in response to this situation. It was termed by the authorities, a Soviet artists response to criticism.They liked it. But to Shostakovich it was a matter of life and death.He later stated, that whether the public liked it or not did not matter, but whether Stalin did.He also said that to him, Stalin and Hitler were alike,both facists.

Tilson Thomas in his lecture with his San Francisco Orchestra, shows us how Shostakovich placed coded messages in the music.The adagio is a Russian Orthodox Chant,which bids farewell to the departed, probably those killed by Stalin and his cohorts. The Last movement,outwardly cheerful, is actually a dig at the whole bloody regime.Taking the mickey out of forced rejoicing, which was created under threats. Your business is rejoicing. The symphony is really about the composers suffering. These messages in his 5-9 symphonies was the act of a very brave man, who knew if he were found out, was surely going to be shot as an enemy of the people.

Tilson Thomas was a pupil of Bernstein,this comes through very clearly in his conducting. I rather like this. Instead of simply standing there like a statue and giving vague movements of the arms,he jumps and uses sweeping movements of the arms. I notice that Tilson Thomas has the build of a marathon runner. He would be fit. I would suggest the more staid amongest you,keep away from this performance. His tempi captures the mood of the symphony. However,Gergiev's version is more gritty. I would suggest along with this symphony, you buy the DVD,Shostakovich against Stalin, the War Symphonies, 5-9. Shot on location in Moscow and St Peterburg,the film brings together archive film,personal recollections from Shostakovitch's family, friends and colleagues, and key extracts from the symphonies, conducted by Valary Gergiev. You get an insight into the ruthless dictatorship of Stalin after Lenin died.

Fantastic! Much like Bernstein and the Young Peoples concerts, just better. Very informative, factual, and well produced. Loved it!

This is a nice way to get exposure to classical music. Included is a nice bonus feature where they talked about the video production and how they designed the video production to complement the audio. It also has a pretty cool sounding speaker surround check and trailers of some of the other Keeping Score bluray discs.

Because of the good recommendations, I ordered this BD. And I am absolutely disappointed. If you are only interested in proofing your new BD-system, maybe you are satisfied with this BD. Audio and Video quality is excellent. If you expect a good intepretation of the Shostakovitch 5., I can't recommend this BD, you will be disappointed. There is nothing of the Shostakovitch typical seriousness, wich you have always to feel even in the lyrical parts. For me there is much to much "easy listening"-character. Michael Tilson Thomas conducting is for me often unwatchable, because his movement absolutely doesn't fit to the music. He is jumping, actes, gesticulates in a way, that has for me nothing to do with the score of Shostakovich. So he is not able to create a atmosphere, there are no longer phrases, there is no suspense. In the first movement, after a few bars, he brings the orchestra really in trouble because his conducting is completly different from the pulse of the orchestra. Sorry, but I have the impression, that MTT is on this BD never really in the music.
So, as I said, if you want a excellent Audio/Video-quality BD, buy this BD. If you want listen to Shostakovichs stunning 5. symphony: Buy CD's with Mravinsky (Leningrad), Svetlanov, Barshai (WDR), Haitink (London Philharmonic).

The merits of the "Keeping Score" series with the San Francisco Symphony and Michael Tilson Thomas are undoubtedly already well-known to anyone reading this review.
Why buy it in Blu-Ray format rather than a standard DVD? For the incredibly superb video and audio quality, which on this BD are the best of any BD I own or have seen.
The channel check in the Audio Setup section is very helpful in verifying that a system is correctly configured.

MTT takes us on a journey to Russia to see with our own eyes the apartment building where Shostakovich lived and wrote this symphony, as well as the hallway where he slept so as to not awaken his family when the secret police came (as he expected) to take him away in the dead of night. The conductor takes us through each movement of the symphony, highlighting key passages and how he interprets their meaning. One of the focal points of his analysis is the ending of the final movement, which on the surface sounds triumphant but which has since been analyzed differently by many interpreters, including MTT. Then the disc concludes with a masterful performance of the symphony. All in all, a musical and musicological tour de force. Highly recommended for any lover of this 20th century masterpiece.