wimpel69
12-04-2014, 01:19 PM
FLAC link below. This is my own rip.
Covers included. Do not share. Buy the original!
Please leave a "Like" or "Thank you" if you enjoyed this!
The Tale of the Priest and His Servant Balda was Dmitri Shostakovich's fourth film score
and his first for an animated film. After his earlier work on the films, particularly on the continuous score
of The New Babylon (1928 - 1929), Shostakovich had often contemplated creating a new hybrid
medium, the film-opera. The Tale of the Priest and His Servant Balda was as close to a realization
of this idea as he ever came. Working with the director Mikhail Tsekhanovsky in early 1933, Shostakovich
set a fairy tale from Pushkin as a continuous score. Unfortunately the contract for the film was canceled,
but Shostakovich, taken with the idea, continued to work sporadically on the score for the remainder of the
year. More unfortunately, both the completed footage and the score were destroyed in the Siege of Leningrad,
and The Tale of the Priest and His Servant Balda became no more than a footnote in Shostakovich's
long career as a film composer.
The poem tells of a lazy priest who is wandering around a market looking for a cheap worker. There he
meets Balda (Балда in Russian means a stupid or just simple, or not very serious person) who agrees to
work for a year without pay except that he be allowed to hit the priest three times on his forehead and
have cooked spelt for food. The priest, being a cheapskate, agrees. But then, after he gets a chance to
observe Balda at work, he sees that he is not only very patient and careful, but also very strong.
That worries the priest greatly and he starts giving Balda impossible missions to accomplish.
The Priest asks Balda to collect a fabricated debt from sea devils. Balda troubles the sea with rope
and forces the leader of the devils, an "old Bies", to come out. He agrees to pay the debt if Balda
will defeat his grandson at running and weight carrying. Balda tricks the "little Bies", first by getting
a hare, whom he proclaims his "younger brother" to run in his stead, and then by "carrying" a
horse between his two legs by riding on it.
The story ends when Balda gives the priest three blows to the forehead which results in the priest
losing his mind. The final line is, "You shouldn't have gone rushing off after cheapness."
Music Composed by
Dmitri Shostakovich
Played by the
Russian Philharmonic Orchestra
With
Evgeniya Sorokina (soprano)
Irina Narskaya (mezzo-soprano)
Dmitri Beloselsky (bass)
Dmitri Stepanovich (bass)
Andrei Suchkov (narrator)
And the
Moscow Chamber Choir
Conducted by
Thomas Sanderling
"While absolutely not appropriate for neophyte Shostakovich fans, this disc of two world-premiere
recordings will be irresistible to longtime fans. The Tale of the Priest and His Servant, Balda, was
written in 1933 for a never-completed cartoon film based on Pushkin's well-known children's story
but was thought long lost. The Symphonic Suite was originally assembled in 1932 from orchestral
interludes from his fabulously successful opera Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District but essentially
forgotten after the opera was banned by the Party and never performed in the composer's lifetime.
Both works are Shostakovich at the height of his enfant terrible period. With their vicious marches,
satirical waltzes, snide songs, and coarse dances, Shostakovich's cartoon music is rude, crude,
ironic, sarcastic, bitter, and side-splittingly funny. And with its relentless ostinatos, jagged melodies,
dissonant harmonies, and mechanical rhythms, Shostakovich's suite of operatic interludes is
nasty, brutal, bloody, and brief. Superbly played by the Russian Philharmonic Orchestra and
superlatively conducted by Thomas Sanderling, this disc will fill the blanks in the Shostakovich
discography between the musical review Hypothetically Murdered and the incidental music to
Hamlet. Although those who only know his Fifth and Tenth symphonies may be initially dismayed
by the unrelieved vulgarity of this music, those who know and love his Jazz Suite No. 1 and his
music for the film The Human Comedy will be thrilled by Balda and Lady Macbeth. Deutsche
Grammophon's 2006 sound is very vivid and quite immediate."
All Music
Download Link - https://mega.nz/#!xPpFTRSD!tKgLk3DiPPLJTCfQkSK3ZPUNYL710vYk89RrI_wPFKQ
Source: Deutsche Grammophon CD, 2006 (my rip!)
Format: FLAC(RAR), DDD Stereo, Level: -5
File Size: 305 MB (covers included)
Enjoy! Don't share! Buy the origina! Please leave a "Like" or "Thank you" if you enjoyed this! :)
Covers included. Do not share. Buy the original!
Please leave a "Like" or "Thank you" if you enjoyed this!
The Tale of the Priest and His Servant Balda was Dmitri Shostakovich's fourth film score
and his first for an animated film. After his earlier work on the films, particularly on the continuous score
of The New Babylon (1928 - 1929), Shostakovich had often contemplated creating a new hybrid
medium, the film-opera. The Tale of the Priest and His Servant Balda was as close to a realization
of this idea as he ever came. Working with the director Mikhail Tsekhanovsky in early 1933, Shostakovich
set a fairy tale from Pushkin as a continuous score. Unfortunately the contract for the film was canceled,
but Shostakovich, taken with the idea, continued to work sporadically on the score for the remainder of the
year. More unfortunately, both the completed footage and the score were destroyed in the Siege of Leningrad,
and The Tale of the Priest and His Servant Balda became no more than a footnote in Shostakovich's
long career as a film composer.
The poem tells of a lazy priest who is wandering around a market looking for a cheap worker. There he
meets Balda (Балда in Russian means a stupid or just simple, or not very serious person) who agrees to
work for a year without pay except that he be allowed to hit the priest three times on his forehead and
have cooked spelt for food. The priest, being a cheapskate, agrees. But then, after he gets a chance to
observe Balda at work, he sees that he is not only very patient and careful, but also very strong.
That worries the priest greatly and he starts giving Balda impossible missions to accomplish.
The Priest asks Balda to collect a fabricated debt from sea devils. Balda troubles the sea with rope
and forces the leader of the devils, an "old Bies", to come out. He agrees to pay the debt if Balda
will defeat his grandson at running and weight carrying. Balda tricks the "little Bies", first by getting
a hare, whom he proclaims his "younger brother" to run in his stead, and then by "carrying" a
horse between his two legs by riding on it.
The story ends when Balda gives the priest three blows to the forehead which results in the priest
losing his mind. The final line is, "You shouldn't have gone rushing off after cheapness."
Music Composed by
Dmitri Shostakovich
Played by the
Russian Philharmonic Orchestra
With
Evgeniya Sorokina (soprano)
Irina Narskaya (mezzo-soprano)
Dmitri Beloselsky (bass)
Dmitri Stepanovich (bass)
Andrei Suchkov (narrator)
And the
Moscow Chamber Choir
Conducted by
Thomas Sanderling
"While absolutely not appropriate for neophyte Shostakovich fans, this disc of two world-premiere
recordings will be irresistible to longtime fans. The Tale of the Priest and His Servant, Balda, was
written in 1933 for a never-completed cartoon film based on Pushkin's well-known children's story
but was thought long lost. The Symphonic Suite was originally assembled in 1932 from orchestral
interludes from his fabulously successful opera Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District but essentially
forgotten after the opera was banned by the Party and never performed in the composer's lifetime.
Both works are Shostakovich at the height of his enfant terrible period. With their vicious marches,
satirical waltzes, snide songs, and coarse dances, Shostakovich's cartoon music is rude, crude,
ironic, sarcastic, bitter, and side-splittingly funny. And with its relentless ostinatos, jagged melodies,
dissonant harmonies, and mechanical rhythms, Shostakovich's suite of operatic interludes is
nasty, brutal, bloody, and brief. Superbly played by the Russian Philharmonic Orchestra and
superlatively conducted by Thomas Sanderling, this disc will fill the blanks in the Shostakovich
discography between the musical review Hypothetically Murdered and the incidental music to
Hamlet. Although those who only know his Fifth and Tenth symphonies may be initially dismayed
by the unrelieved vulgarity of this music, those who know and love his Jazz Suite No. 1 and his
music for the film The Human Comedy will be thrilled by Balda and Lady Macbeth. Deutsche
Grammophon's 2006 sound is very vivid and quite immediate."
All Music
Download Link - https://mega.nz/#!xPpFTRSD!tKgLk3DiPPLJTCfQkSK3ZPUNYL710vYk89RrI_wPFKQ
Source: Deutsche Grammophon CD, 2006 (my rip!)
Format: FLAC(RAR), DDD Stereo, Level: -5
File Size: 305 MB (covers included)
Enjoy! Don't share! Buy the origina! Please leave a "Like" or "Thank you" if you enjoyed this! :)