.com Mussorgsky's music clearly provided the inspiration, along with Mahler's Das Lied von der Erde, for Shostakovich's 14th Symphony, a setting of 11 poems by a variety of poets, all concerned in one way or another with death. This isn't a record to listen to on a bright spring morning. Both works--the Mussorgsky here performed in Shostakovich's excellent orchestration--lay misery on with a trowel, though there's much that's quite beautiful besides. It's a function of art that it can make such thoughts and images attractive, even appealing to the ear, but the I wouldn't say that either composer was particularly interested in "gilding the lily. " So make sure you're in the right mood or the experience--rendered here with appropriate intensity of expression--is likely to be pretty depressing. --David Hurwitz
L**B
Ultimate Griief and Despair.
Even compared to Shostakovch /symphonies Nos 4,6 and 8 and the string quartets Nos 8 and 15 it doesn't get more bleak than this. A masterpiece of utter despair surpassed only by Shostakovich's final viola sonata.I still love rock and roll but the only band that was able to do grief on the same level as Shostakovich was Seefeel on Ch-VOX,Maybe.
A**X
Worth the search
With the Mussorgsky arrangement a nice bonus, this recording offers up what of Shostakovich's more unusual pieces. Vocal soloists, a small ensemble, and heavy use of percussion combine to render a series of poems relating in a variety of ways to ever-present, all-encompassing death. The subject matter may be somber but the color the composer creates with his austere forces makes for a wide range of emotion, leading up to the Rilke poem quite literally at the end.
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