1 1

BIS

Shostakovich Jazz & Variety Suites

Shostakovich Jazz & Variety Suites

$20.00 SGD
$20.00 SGD $20.00 SGD
Sale Sold out
Tax included. Shipping calculated at checkout.

Singapore Symphony Orchestra
Andrew Litton, Principal Guest Conductor
  • Release Date: Apr 2022
  • Format: SACD-Hybrid
  • Catalogue No: BIS-2472 SACD
  • Label: BIS
  • Total time: 69'14

"Andrew Litton and the Singapore Symphony Orchestra lavish more care and subtlety on these pieces than the quality of invention in some of the music maybe deserves, additionally flattered by BIS's spacious recording.... a superior collection for those who relish this lighter, sometimes naughtier side of Shostakovich." (BBC Music Magazine)

"The performances here are very good, and the engineering is excellent, but I think the strength of this SACD lies in its variety more than in the performances themselves. ... That said, I enjoyed these performances, and I’ll give a special shout-out to first chair cellist Ng Pei-Sian, who sounds lovely in the aforementioned Adagio." (Fanfare)

"Or head to The Limpid Stream Suite, where the extended cello solo in the Adagio is pure eloquence, and there’s a welcome deftness in the Gallop and Pizzicato movements. ... an enjoyable and worthwhile program." (Limelight)

DMITRI SHOSTAKOVICH (1906-1975)
Suite for Jazz Orchestra No. 1
Suite for Variety Stage Orchestra
The Age of Gold Suite
Limpid Stream Suite
Tahiti Trot

Dmitri Shostakovich was the most versatile of composers: popular and serious styles came to him with equal ease and are frequently found together in the same work. In his twenties, before the heavy hand of Soviet officialdom slapped him down in 1936, music of every kind poured out of him: symphonies, operas and full-length ballets but also a great amount of music for film and theatre. Here Andrew Litton leads the Singapore Symphony Orchestra in a programme which explores this lighter side of a composer who is otherwise often regarded as unrelentingly serious.

The disc opens with Suite for Jazz Orchestra No. 1, which Litton conducts from the piano. Consisting of three brief movements, it is the only truly original work on the disc, written in 1934 for a competition aimed at making ‘Soviet Jazz’ more respectable. The remaining suites are all reworkings of existing music, such as the ballets The Age of Gold – about the adventures of a Soviet football team visiting the decadent West – and The Limpid Stream, portraying a group of entertainers visiting an idyllic collective farm. The Suite for Variety Orchestra is a compilation that the composer made in the late 1950s from three film scores, a ballet movement and four piano pieces. Closing the disc is Shostakovich’s 1927 orchestration of a Broadway classic, Vincent Youmans’ Tea for Two, which had become a hit under the title Tahiti Trot. (BIS)

Materials

Shipping & Returns

Dimensions

Care Instructions

View full details