wimpel69
01-22-2017, 04:51 PM
I shared three of these 5 albums here before, albeit in mp3. These are the complete recordings of
Shostakovich's "minor" films scores as conducted by Walter Mnatsakanov and released in the West by
Delos (originally on Russian Disc). The FLAC albums come with cover art and booklets (where available).
These are my rips. Do not share them any further! Please request the links in this thread, not by PM.
Also, please add to my reputation when convenient.
And, oh, make sure that your inbox is free *before* you ask for them. Thank you! ;)
Many classical music fans have yet to discover the colorful and wide-ranging music that Dmitri Shostakovich wrote for films.
Shostakovich loved the movies, and started out playing the piano for silent films when he was a teenage music student. He composed
his first film score when he was 23, for the 1929 film The New Babylon. In all, he created the music for 36 films, the last
being King Lear in 1971.
One of the distinguishing factors in Shostakovich’s film music that truly sets him apart from his contemporaries is his genuine love
of the cinema, which gave him a particular sensitivity to the medium. And it was his sensitivity to the medium that led him to write
his film music in a highly accessible idiom. From the outset, his film music had enormous mass appeal for audiences.
Shostakovich’s dramatic sensibilities, especially his ability to juxtapose frivolity with despair in his music, translated particularly
well to the cinema. This dramatic sensibility helped to bring alive what was happening onscreen. His ability to take what some
would consider “trivial” music, and grant it a legitimate role, was particularly suited to animated films. Unfortunately, his one
feature-length “cartoon comic-opera,” The Tale of the Priest and His Worker Balda (on Volume 5), was never completed,
and the footage was eventually lost.
Music from the film Odna “Alone” is the second in the highly successful Shostakovich Film Music series, which
originally appeared on Russian Disc, and is now being re-released by Delos. Annotator Maya Pritsker points out that in this score
“some of the episodes are quite lengthy and display a truly symphonic development and brilliant use of orchestral resources…
We have here an excellent piece of film music, created by the composer in his youthful prime when he was excited at working
in a new field…” One of the scenes is reminiscent of “the tragic orchestral interludes of the opera Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk
District,” which Shostakovich completed shortly after the film Alone was released. Shostakovich is regarded as a pioneer of
Soviet film music, and wrote scores for 30 films between 1929 and 1971. Pritsker observes that in every one of his film scores,
Shostakovich “remained a great symphonist, dedicated mostly to the dramatic and expressive… He preferred recreating and
evoking emotions to merely making colorful sound pictures.
The Lady and the Hooligan is a “choreographic novel” in seven episodes, with the libretto based on a screenplay by
Vladimir Mayakovsky. The 41-minute score is an ingenious tapestry of descriptive music drawn from a number of Shostakovich
works. Arranged by Levon Atovmyan the score vividly conveys the characters and their dramatic story. The more familiar
Ballet Suite No. 2, which rounds out the program, is lively and lyrical, playful and ironic, in typical Shostakovich style.
The symphonic suite from The Golden Mountains, Shostakovich’s first score for a sound film, contains the famous
Waltz (Track 2). Famous as well is the innovative scoring for pipe organ and orchestra on Track 3, which drew high praise
when the film first appeared. How often do we laugh out loud or even chuckle through an entire orchestral suite? Certainly
throughout the rest of this album! All three of the other works in this program demonstrate Shostakovich’s genius for
comedic writing. The Tale of the Priest and His Worker Balda, composed for an animated film, is funny and satirical
even when we have nothing to look at. The Adventures of Korzinkina, written for a film comedy, is again
highly amusing even without the visual context. In The Silly Little Mouse, a short children’s opera, the singers ham
it up to match Shostakovich’s instrumental humor.
Aesthetically, the music to Sofia Perovskaya is one of Shostakovich’s most accomplished contributions to
cinema music… like Katerina Izmailova (Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District), Sofia Perovskaya is portrayed in music
with extreme tenderness… for the connoisseurs of Shostakovich’s art it is really great luck to have this remarkable specimen
of his late style available on CD.” Hakopian also comments that the score of Passer-by, “presented on this disc in
the form of a concise symphonic suite, is full of variegated ideas, some of which are reminiscent of Shostakovich’s
Symphony No. 3 written three years earlier. The tune ‘Song about a Passer-by’ crowns the whole.” “Both the
Overture to The Man with a Gun and the Suite from Viborg District are pieces in a heroic mood,”
Hakopian says. “Almost all the films Shostakovich scored are nowadays completely forgotten… Yet, Shostakovich’s film
scores… continue their own, independent life.”
Music Composed by
Dmitri Shostakovich
Played by the
Byelorussian Radio and Television Symphony Orchestra
State Cinematographic Orchestra
Minsk Symphony Orchestra
(Which I'm pretty sure are the same)
Conducted by
Walter Mnatsakanov
The elusive Walter Mnatsakanov.
"Zoya is the inspirational true story of one of Russia's most beloved national heroines. During the Nazi siege of Moscow,
a fearless 18-year-old girl named Zoya risked her life as a partisan fighter. Captured by the Germans, Zoya endured
unspeakable tortures at the hands of the Gestapo but still refused to betray her comrades. Even on the gallows,
Zoya defiantly spoke out against the Nazis and everything they stood for. In a series of flashbacks, this film re-creates
not merely Zoya's death, but also her life. Galina Vodiantiskaya plays the title character as an adult, while Katia Skvortsova
enacts the younger Zoya. The film's English-language version was prepared by Howard Fast, who was later egregiously
blacklisted for his "pro-Red" activities."
Hal Erickson, Rovi
"Shostakovich fans may be curious about The Lady and the Hooligan, not a work commonly listed among
either the composer's ballets or his film scores. The general listener may be likewise puzzled to see a pair of
ballets included in a CD that is part of a group entitled Shostakovich Film Series. All is explained in the concise
booklet notes by Maya Pritsker (in English only). The Lady and the Hooligan was a film screenplay by poet and
playwright Vladimir Mayakovsky, written in 1918. The film made from it was a failure and disappeared, but
Soviet artists continued to read the screenplay, and in the early '60s a group of them turned it into what is
referred to here as a choreographic novel, which for all intents and purposes seems to be a ballet.
The choreographer, one K. Boyarsky (no full name is given), selected excerpts from various Shostakovich
works -- mostly ballets, ballet suites, and a film score -- to fit the action, which has to do with a street
person befriended by a young woman. This is definitely an appendix to Shostakovich's output, but the
fact is that many of the individual movements, short and snappy, are overlooked gems. The score
alternates lyrical melodies with fine examples of Shostakovich's broad yet sharp humor; sample the
introduction of the Hooligan (track 3), drawn on a passage from the ballet The Bolt. The notes, in a
rather roundabout way, identify the source for each piece. The score is played without pause, and in
several places the division into tracks comes at an illogical place. The Ballet Suite No. 2 of 1951 that
rounds out the program is cut from the same cloth. Originally recorded for the small Russian Disc label
in 1994, the performances and sound have held up well; the little-known Minsk Symphony Orchestra
under Walter Mnatsakanov seem to be steeped in Shostakovich and catch the undertone of melancholy
in his humor beautifully. A nice find for the confirmed Shostakovich fan."
James Manheim, All Music
Source: DELOS CDs (my rips!)
Format: FLAC(RAR), DDD Stereo
File Sizes: 276 MB + 362 MB + 340 MB + 275 MB + 427 MB
Total Size: 1.64 GB
I shared three of these 5 albums here before, albeit in mp3. These are the complete recordings of
Shostakovich's "minor" films scores as conducted by Walter Mnatsakanov and released in the West by
Delos (originally on Russian Disc). The FLAC albums come with cover art and booklets (where available).
These are my rips. Do not share them any further! Please request the links in this thread, not by PM.
Also, please add to my reputation when convenient.
And, oh, make sure that your inbox is free *before* you ask for them. Thank you! ;)
Shostakovich's "minor" films scores as conducted by Walter Mnatsakanov and released in the West by
Delos (originally on Russian Disc). The FLAC albums come with cover art and booklets (where available).
These are my rips. Do not share them any further! Please request the links in this thread, not by PM.
Also, please add to my reputation when convenient.
And, oh, make sure that your inbox is free *before* you ask for them. Thank you! ;)
Many classical music fans have yet to discover the colorful and wide-ranging music that Dmitri Shostakovich wrote for films.
Shostakovich loved the movies, and started out playing the piano for silent films when he was a teenage music student. He composed
his first film score when he was 23, for the 1929 film The New Babylon. In all, he created the music for 36 films, the last
being King Lear in 1971.
One of the distinguishing factors in Shostakovich’s film music that truly sets him apart from his contemporaries is his genuine love
of the cinema, which gave him a particular sensitivity to the medium. And it was his sensitivity to the medium that led him to write
his film music in a highly accessible idiom. From the outset, his film music had enormous mass appeal for audiences.
Shostakovich’s dramatic sensibilities, especially his ability to juxtapose frivolity with despair in his music, translated particularly
well to the cinema. This dramatic sensibility helped to bring alive what was happening onscreen. His ability to take what some
would consider “trivial” music, and grant it a legitimate role, was particularly suited to animated films. Unfortunately, his one
feature-length “cartoon comic-opera,” The Tale of the Priest and His Worker Balda (on Volume 5), was never completed,
and the footage was eventually lost.
Music from the film Odna “Alone” is the second in the highly successful Shostakovich Film Music series, which
originally appeared on Russian Disc, and is now being re-released by Delos. Annotator Maya Pritsker points out that in this score
“some of the episodes are quite lengthy and display a truly symphonic development and brilliant use of orchestral resources…
We have here an excellent piece of film music, created by the composer in his youthful prime when he was excited at working
in a new field…” One of the scenes is reminiscent of “the tragic orchestral interludes of the opera Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk
District,” which Shostakovich completed shortly after the film Alone was released. Shostakovich is regarded as a pioneer of
Soviet film music, and wrote scores for 30 films between 1929 and 1971. Pritsker observes that in every one of his film scores,
Shostakovich “remained a great symphonist, dedicated mostly to the dramatic and expressive… He preferred recreating and
evoking emotions to merely making colorful sound pictures.
The Lady and the Hooligan is a “choreographic novel” in seven episodes, with the libretto based on a screenplay by
Vladimir Mayakovsky. The 41-minute score is an ingenious tapestry of descriptive music drawn from a number of Shostakovich
works. Arranged by Levon Atovmyan the score vividly conveys the characters and their dramatic story. The more familiar
Ballet Suite No. 2, which rounds out the program, is lively and lyrical, playful and ironic, in typical Shostakovich style.
The symphonic suite from The Golden Mountains, Shostakovich’s first score for a sound film, contains the famous
Waltz (Track 2). Famous as well is the innovative scoring for pipe organ and orchestra on Track 3, which drew high praise
when the film first appeared. How often do we laugh out loud or even chuckle through an entire orchestral suite? Certainly
throughout the rest of this album! All three of the other works in this program demonstrate Shostakovich’s genius for
comedic writing. The Tale of the Priest and His Worker Balda, composed for an animated film, is funny and satirical
even when we have nothing to look at. The Adventures of Korzinkina, written for a film comedy, is again
highly amusing even without the visual context. In The Silly Little Mouse, a short children’s opera, the singers ham
it up to match Shostakovich’s instrumental humor.
Aesthetically, the music to Sofia Perovskaya is one of Shostakovich’s most accomplished contributions to
cinema music… like Katerina Izmailova (Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District), Sofia Perovskaya is portrayed in music
with extreme tenderness… for the connoisseurs of Shostakovich’s art it is really great luck to have this remarkable specimen
of his late style available on CD.” Hakopian also comments that the score of Passer-by, “presented on this disc in
the form of a concise symphonic suite, is full of variegated ideas, some of which are reminiscent of Shostakovich’s
Symphony No. 3 written three years earlier. The tune ‘Song about a Passer-by’ crowns the whole.” “Both the
Overture to The Man with a Gun and the Suite from Viborg District are pieces in a heroic mood,”
Hakopian says. “Almost all the films Shostakovich scored are nowadays completely forgotten… Yet, Shostakovich’s film
scores… continue their own, independent life.”
Music Composed by
Dmitri Shostakovich
Played by the
Byelorussian Radio and Television Symphony Orchestra
State Cinematographic Orchestra
Minsk Symphony Orchestra
(Which I'm pretty sure are the same)
Conducted by
Walter Mnatsakanov
The elusive Walter Mnatsakanov.
"Zoya is the inspirational true story of one of Russia's most beloved national heroines. During the Nazi siege of Moscow,
a fearless 18-year-old girl named Zoya risked her life as a partisan fighter. Captured by the Germans, Zoya endured
unspeakable tortures at the hands of the Gestapo but still refused to betray her comrades. Even on the gallows,
Zoya defiantly spoke out against the Nazis and everything they stood for. In a series of flashbacks, this film re-creates
not merely Zoya's death, but also her life. Galina Vodiantiskaya plays the title character as an adult, while Katia Skvortsova
enacts the younger Zoya. The film's English-language version was prepared by Howard Fast, who was later egregiously
blacklisted for his "pro-Red" activities."
Hal Erickson, Rovi
"Shostakovich fans may be curious about The Lady and the Hooligan, not a work commonly listed among
either the composer's ballets or his film scores. The general listener may be likewise puzzled to see a pair of
ballets included in a CD that is part of a group entitled Shostakovich Film Series. All is explained in the concise
booklet notes by Maya Pritsker (in English only). The Lady and the Hooligan was a film screenplay by poet and
playwright Vladimir Mayakovsky, written in 1918. The film made from it was a failure and disappeared, but
Soviet artists continued to read the screenplay, and in the early '60s a group of them turned it into what is
referred to here as a choreographic novel, which for all intents and purposes seems to be a ballet.
The choreographer, one K. Boyarsky (no full name is given), selected excerpts from various Shostakovich
works -- mostly ballets, ballet suites, and a film score -- to fit the action, which has to do with a street
person befriended by a young woman. This is definitely an appendix to Shostakovich's output, but the
fact is that many of the individual movements, short and snappy, are overlooked gems. The score
alternates lyrical melodies with fine examples of Shostakovich's broad yet sharp humor; sample the
introduction of the Hooligan (track 3), drawn on a passage from the ballet The Bolt. The notes, in a
rather roundabout way, identify the source for each piece. The score is played without pause, and in
several places the division into tracks comes at an illogical place. The Ballet Suite No. 2 of 1951 that
rounds out the program is cut from the same cloth. Originally recorded for the small Russian Disc label
in 1994, the performances and sound have held up well; the little-known Minsk Symphony Orchestra
under Walter Mnatsakanov seem to be steeped in Shostakovich and catch the undertone of melancholy
in his humor beautifully. A nice find for the confirmed Shostakovich fan."
James Manheim, All Music
Source: DELOS CDs (my rips!)
Format: FLAC(RAR), DDD Stereo
File Sizes: 276 MB + 362 MB + 340 MB + 275 MB + 427 MB
Total Size: 1.64 GB
I shared three of these 5 albums here before, albeit in mp3. These are the complete recordings of
Shostakovich's "minor" films scores as conducted by Walter Mnatsakanov and released in the West by
Delos (originally on Russian Disc). The FLAC albums come with cover art and booklets (where available).
These are my rips. Do not share them any further! Please request the links in this thread, not by PM.
Also, please add to my reputation when convenient.
And, oh, make sure that your inbox is free *before* you ask for them. Thank you! ;)
