There's no doubting what composer we have to thank for that. In any case, classical condescension, may not be entirely dead but it is certainly less prevalent than it used to be. By contrast, I recall a review from the time the NYPO first performed Williams's suite of "Three Pieces from Schindler's List." The writer said the music was nice but didn't belong on a classical concert. Schindler’s List is a great filmscore, but it’s fair to say the composer had fewer distractions.Īs Preston makes clear, this was a letter to the editor, not a review or editorial comment. Shostakovich barely survived this latest run in, as he had in the 30s, by on the surface bowing his head in penance but continuing to write his own ambiguous music. None the less the premiere went ahead, loved by the audience but attracting criticism from the authorities. A number of singers turned down the opportunity to take the key bass part, including one on the morning of the premiere. Rehearsals for the 13th symphony were attended by shadowy government agents Mravinsky, Shostakovich’s close friend and usual conductor of premieres, refused to take part, and his replacement, Kyril Kondrashin, received a phone call from the Soviet Minister of Culture ominously enquiring after his health. This was 1962, just as Khrushchev’s cultural thaw was grinding to a halt. It’s a song cycle really, based on several poems by the young dissident Yevtushenko (including one actually commissioned by the composer) starting with the line “There is no monument above Babi Yar.” Other poems in the cycle celebrated the plight of soviet women, recognised the importance of humour under tyranny, denounced those who remain silent about oppression in order to preserve their jobs, and most scathing of all, about living under Stalin’s Great Terror. The soviets tended to discourage holocaust memorials, partly due to persistent anti-semitism and because it detracted from recognition of the Soviet Union’s loss of around 20m people (including the 33,000 Jewish victims at Babi Yar in Ukraine).Īmongst several works arising from his sympathies for Jewish people and culture, the 13th symphony in particular took Shostakovich to the edge. I can’t really comment on Britten, Strauss or Schoenberg, but I can help to put Shostakovich into some perspective. Incidentally, to illustrate this letter, the Times ran photos of Britten, Shostakovich, Strauss, and Schoenberg - but not Williams.Īn interesting observation and a perfectly valid opinion taken purely in musical terms. By the transformation of grief into art, Williams has created a memorial in music to the six million whose lives ended when those of others were just beginning. ![]() The haunting violin solo at the beginning of the film gives voice to the victims whose voices have been silenced by providing them with a musical signature, almost like a leitmotif. ![]() Williams's music is neither a threnody nor a requiem, but a meditation on the fate of those who perished in the Holocaust. 24): No one, not even composers like Benjamin Britten, Dmitri Shostakovich, Richard Strauss and Arnold Schoenberg, evoked the Holocaust in music as eloquently as John Williams did in his score for Steven Spielberg's "Schindler's List" (1993). Regarding Kira Thurman's review of "Time's Echo," by Jeremy Eichler (Sept. This led the Letters page in Sunday's New York Times Book Review magazine: General Discussion: WILLIAMS PRAISED IN N Y TIMES BOOK REVIEW FSM Board: WILLIAMS PRAISED IN N Y TIMES BOOK REVIEW
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |