Shostakovich: The Bolt

Dmitri Shostakovich (Composer), Gennady Rozhdestvensky (Conductor) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Conductor: Gennady Rozhdestvensky
• Composer: Dmitri Shostakovich
• Audio CD (March 21, 1995)
• SPARS Code: DDD
• Number of Discs: 2
• Label: Chandos
• ASIN: B000000AW8
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #61,548 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Customer Reviews

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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Multifaceted and Enjoyable Score, January 13, 2010

By 

Cindy Jamroz (Gibraltar, MI USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Shostakovich: The Bolt (Audio CD)

I stumbled across a suite of tunes from this ballet while I was changing stations on my car stereo. The music intrigued me so I waited until the announcer came on and identified the numbers as being from Shostakovich's ballet, "The Bolt". While many suites are available for download, I decided to purchase the CD and get the complete arrangement.

Some of the music has the generally heavy and foreboding (and sometimes heroic) sound that is common in Russian classical music but the composer also made use of music hall and cabaret music styles that were contemporary to his day. The best example of this and probably the most commercial is the "Dance of Kozelkov and his Friends" that mixes a tango in with some Russian folk sounds and a few other styles. In this recording, the conductor emphasizes the syncopation more than some of the downloadable suites that I sampled. Some of those tended to round or soften the backbeats. This recording keeps the tango and other dances sharp and full of energy. The "Wreckers (Interlude)" number also has a modern, for early 20th century anyway, dance step but it also interlaces some nice and perhaps a little melancholy, airy sections reminiscent of Prokofiev's more delicate musical passages. The conductor is artful with these sections too, allowing them to float softly while maintaining interest.

Some may be surprised to hear a gymnastics routine soon after the overture. At the time, this was a common way of starting the work day in a shop, even in America. I have seen movies of autoworkers in the 20's that performed stretches before they began their manual labor. In this recording, the conductor speaks the routines himself, accompanied by a solo piano. It is kind of fun and at the least, you will learn to count to five in Russian!

If you are a fan of double reed instruments, they are prominent in this score. Bassoons are used liberally for the comic sounds, especially for the themes of the "idle reveler". Even the contrabassoon can be clearly heard as it provides the bottom during softer sections where the higher double reeds and other woodwinds are carrying the melodies.

The title sounds odd for a ballet but it is a reference to one of the major props. There are two sections to the ballet. The first involves a drunk who has just lost his job and his girlfriend. The place where he worked had just started operations, the main purpose of which is to light a giant light bulb. The fired worker decides to sneak into the workplace and damage the machine by throwing a bolt into the works. The damage is done and after some false accusations and resolution of a love triangle the real perpetrator is identified, the machine is repaired, and work goes on. The next part is a slightly out of place dream sequence that tries to pay homage to the Soviet military branches.

One interesting aspect of the music is the political story behind it. From what I have read, the composer was approached by the authorities to create a piece to help the State crack down on an industrial sabotage and drunkenness problem. I think this would have been a difficult job for any composer and choreographer to put in to ballet form and while Mr. Shostakovich may have tried his best, the original ballet had only one, limited performance. Critics panned it for not properly representing factory life. Worse still, the authorities felt that the sometimes comic nature of the libretto and score was too easy on the saboteurs and tended to make caricatures of the Soviet workers. It seems that satire was not appreciated by the authorities! Luckily, the composer did not earn a one way ticket to the gulag.

The only negative part of this CD is the liner notes. The translation in the booklet is rough and I think some of the pages are missing. The musical performance on this CD is superb and it is nice to be able to listen to the full score intact, especially since the relatively recent revival by the Bolshoi ballet cut out much of the original score. Overall, this CD would make a good contribution to anyone's classical music library.