Necropolis #60 – Shostakovich (Classical Music Talk)

A casual discussion about Shostakovich by two Bruckner enthusiasts (Jason and Sébastien).

A graduate from the Royal Conservatory of Liège in Belgium (1st prize organ, 1st prize harmony, 1st prize history of music, 1st prize musical analysis); Sébastien Letocart is a self-taught composer, who has built his musical equally by studying ancient music (i.e. Josquin Desprez, William Byrd, Tomas Luis Vitoria, Roland de Lassus, Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck, Claudio Monteverdi, Dietrich Buxtehude, Johann Sebastian Bach), practicing it (organ, harpsichord and singing) as well as analyzing the great scores of the Classical Symphony (Haydn, Mozart), the Romantic (Beethoven, Schumann, Brahms, Dvořák, Bruckner), the Post-romantic (Debussy, Roussel, R.Strauss, Mahler, Sibelius, Nielsen) and the symphonic repertoire of the first half of the 20th century (Bartók, Hindemith, Stravinsky, Shostakovich, Bax, Vaughan Williams, Holst, Walton, Honegger, Martinu, Varèse). He is also highly interested in the music of the last sixty years, his preferences are going from György Ligeti, Iannis Xenakis or Esa-Pekka Salonen to Einar Englund, Aulis Sallinen, Emil Tabakov, Kalevi Aho, Vagn Holmboe, John Adams, Sir Malcolm Arnold or Sir Andrzej Panufnik. He is also greatly attracted by chamber music, especially by the refined writing that the string quartet demands and by Béla Bartók’s six String Quartets which are the nec plus ultra of the genre.

More info about Letocart here: https://www.sites.google.com/site/letocartsebastien/Home-english

Lecture/Rehearsal of Shostakovich 8 that Letocart brought up: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=snpK0q47YgA

First music excerpt is Shostakovich 4, last moments of the finale, conducted by Myung-Whun Chung with the Philadelphia Orchestra: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pXXiB0Lce5g

Second music excerpt is the ending of the finale of Shostakovich 5, conducted by Mariss Jansons at the Wiener Philharmoniker: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dKeFOij6J7A&t=2641s

Third music excerpt is the most popular movement of Shostakovich 8, conducted by Gergiev at the Mariinsky Orchestra and Chorus: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9jFesZ-jxRw

Fourth music excerpt is the Scherzo from Shostakovich 10, conducted by Haitink at the London Philharmonic Orchestra: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5FRH22KRsU0

Final music at the end of the episode is Shostakovich’s 5^th string quartet performed by Dudok Kwartet in Zuiderkerk in Amsterdam: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zsWTDiPixcU