Photo by Richard Stachmann on Unsplash
I feel somewhat stereotypically that winter is the time to be writing about Russian music, also to be reading Russian literature. I’ve read Dostoyevsky’s Crime and Punishment two or three times, and then finally did his The Idiot, and fully intended to read The Brothers Karamazov this month, before the year was out, but it’s not going to happen. I have two other third reads of books (Pynchon’s Mason & Dixon and David Markson’s Wittgenstein’s Mistress) to do and probably won’t finish the former in this calendar year.
Anyway, why read Dostoyevsky in the summer? Seems off.
So yeah, for December, along with what’s coming next mont, more Scandinavian stuff, it feels right to have a Russian program. There’s one big standard on the program, which I have both written about and lectured on. There’s another piece I have written about and plan to lecture on eventually, and another that was totally new to me until relatively recently.
I had the great pleasure to hear that new piece, the first piece on this program, as the last piece on a program a couple of months ago, marking my first concert since like… pre-pandemic times, which is shocking.
Prokofiev is by no definition an obscure or neglected composer. His ‘classical’ symphony and fifth symphony are very popular, as are many of his concertos, to say nothing of the beloved Peter and the Wolf or his piano sonatas, but this piece was new to me and very rewarding.
That’s the only way it can be thought of as obscure, but it can also be viewed, as the article will discuss, as a less played Stravinskian pagan ballet thing. If you have an itch for something wild, even barbaric, that’s Russian and rich and colorful and checks those that The Firebird or Rite of Spring do, then maybe check this one out. Not the same, obviously, but if that’s what you have a hankering for, this may be a wonderful little morsel.
Sandwiched in the middle, as many not-terribly-long concerti are, is the real rarity on the program, the piece that would challenge (or if some know the name, maybe even alienate) some audiences. Schnittke’s not a dude who’s going to win audiences with dulcet tones and sweet, sweeping melodies. There’s some musico-historical context and expectation to be set for who he is and what he does, at least for most people, I’d think. That said, I’ve shared this with people before with no more introduction than “Listen for contrast,” and made some converts. It’s just music, after all.
Lastly is The Crowd Pleaser, but not just with the sole purpose of being so. It fits contextually with the question Schnittke asks about the purpose of life and all that, Tchaikovsky’s own ‘fate’ symphony that’s such a wonderful journey.
At the end of last month’s B program, I wrote that I didn’t find Honegger’s second symphony finale all that convincing, with its almost perfunctory trumpet joining in at the end. As ambiguous pseudo-triumphant endings go, Shostakovich’s fifth is the poster child, but I’m also somewhat unsure how exactly I feel about Tchaikovsky’s celebratory finale.
Regardless, though, we have three very Russian pieces on the program, two from famous, recognized, household names, and one deep cut that’s really very rarely performed. Let’s get started.