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 ...
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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...
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Seller's Description:
New in new packaging. Originally released: 2006. New. Still in shrinkwrap. Sticker on front says: "World-Premiere Recordings of the hilarious Russian folk-tale "Balda" and the searing Suite from Shostakovich's great tragic opera."
