Dmitri Shostakovich/Levon Atovmyan - 5 Pieces for 2 violins and piano (audio + sheet music)
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- čas přidán 24. 06. 2020
- When listeners think of Dmitri Shostakovich (1906-75), they are likely to envision a composer whose music is as close as music gets to bipolar, ricocheting from unbridled euphoria to despondency and terror, often settling on the latter. Such music is often encountered in the composer’s symphonies and string quartets, but the Five Pieces performed here are not that kind of music. They aspire only to entertain, to elicit a nod of agreeable connection, to prompt a welcome smile. The movements trace their ancestry to scores Shostakovich originally composed for film, ballet, and theater productions, with one questionable exception. But although he invented all the music, the performance as presented here is twice removed from the composer.
The recasting of the Five Pieces from their original versions was done by Shostakovich’s friend Levon Atovmyan (1901-73), a Turkmen composer, arranger, and man-about-the-music-industry. In the 1940s, ’50s, and ’60s, Atovmyan created many composer-approved suites comprising movements from assorted Shostakovich works, including the four Ballet Suites and the suites from the film scores for The Gadfly (1955) and Hamlet (1932). Atovmyan apparently assembled the Five Pieces by 1970, and they were published under the rubric Five Pieces for Two Violins and Piano. The parts can also be played by two violas.
The Prelude derives from Shostakovich’s music for The Gadfly, where it is titled “Guitars” and was to be played by two guitars. Atovmyan had already transcribed this movement in his orchestral Suite from The Gadfly (Opus 78a), in which guise it may be familiar to some listeners. In that setting, he mixed in some music from a separate Gadfly section, but in the Five Pieces he reverts to the text Shostakovich originally wrote (though with bowed strings instead of plucked ones). It balances on the thin boundary between pensive Russian melancholy and genial Viennese good cheer. The two string instruments track each other almost always in the same rhythm, though in harmony, a characteristic that maintains for nearly the entire suite.
The Gavotte and the Elegy are both taken from Shostakovich’s incidental music for a production of the play The Human Comedy, based on episodes from Balzac’s novels; the play was introduced in 1934 at Moscow’s Vakhtangov Theatre. The Gavotte (a French courtly dance), is a lighthearted movement, here one that chuckles and perhaps even hiccups; and the Elegy assumes a pose of unruffled peacefulness. Atomyan used orchestral settings of both of these movements in the 1951 Ballet Suite No. 3.
The Waltz robes the flowing dance in a lightly mournful, minor-key sensibility so often encountered in Russian light music. This movement’s source remains a mystery, but this music does appear in a collection called Shostakovich: Easy Pieces for the Piano, issued by publisher G. Schirmer; that volume does not identify the source. It may possibly have been an original composition by Atovmyan.
The set concludes with a giddy Polka, which originated in the 1935 comedy-ballet The Limpid Stream, where it appears as the “Dance of the Milkmaid and the Tractor Driver.” Atovmyan also used it in the Ballet Suite No. 1 (published in 1949). Aficionados of song recitals may join me in believing that William Bolcom must have had this polka on his mind when he composed his evergreen encore “Lime Jello Marshmallow Cottage Cheese Surprise.”
(San Francisco Symphony)
Please take note that the audio AND sheet music ARE NOT mine. Feel free to change the video quality to a minimum of 480p for the best watching experience.
Performers: Anne-Sophie Mutter and Leonidas Kavakos (violins), Denis Matsuev (piano) (Vernier Festival, 2011) ( • Video )
Original sheet music: en.scorser.com/I/Sheet+music/3... (Musikverlag Hans Sikorski, 1970)
Thank you for uploading! I just wanted to note that Atovmyan was Armenian ( although a native of Ashgabat capital of Turkmenistan nowadays that used to be a part of Russian Empire when he was born)
I am a simple man. I see Shostakovich, I click.
Twoset anybody?
The prelude is genius... First violin plays in B minor, while the second violin plays in D major... Then at the "poco piu mosso" they switch, and then switch again at tempo 1....
I played this piece with two friends but the second violinist her killed herself yesterday I want to put all my soul in this piece and play it in hommage to her
I bet they site read it. Unmatched articulation, rubati and balance. With all respect to all three performers , this is quite mediocre playing.
What’s this? Shostakovich music that
Playing these songs are so enjoyable, when you get in to the music you’re a whole new person, not all songs have to be hard to enjoy
Was extraordinary to have an audible experience right in our school hall of this piece.
I’m sorry, piece nr. 1 is not the one in the sheet?! 1st violin plays do, do do do re mi, not the thing in the sheet.
Played this trio with my friends for our concert! It was a great success!!!
I. Prelude
Breath taking performance, loved the section around
So beautiful. I was lucky enough last school year to be playing these 5 beautiful pieces as a pianist for the school chamber ensemble.
Thank you for including the program notes in the description. Understanding the context makes the music even more enjoyable and fulfilling :)
Yes! More Shostakovich!!!!
No. 4 Waltz is from the incidental music to the movie "Love and Hate" («Любовь и Ненависть», Op. 38, 1935).
thank you for uploading
Quel génie mélodique dans le prélude !
Inebriante, transcendente.... aos primeiros compassos já estou em outro mundo... 💕🎶💕🎵