Welcome to the weekend and your Saturday at the Symphony Evening Concert. Tonight's featured work the Symphony No. 13 in B flat minor (Op. 113, subtitled Babi Yar) by Dmitri Shostakovich was first performed in Moscow on 18 December 1962 by the Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra and the basses of the Republican State and Gnessin Institute Choirs, under Kirill Kondrashin (after Yevgeny Mravinsky refused to conduct the work). The soloist was Vitali Gromadsky. This work has been variously called a song cycle and a choral symphony since the composer included settings of poems by Yevgeny Yevtushenko that concerned the World War II Babi Yar massacre and other topics. The five poems Shostakovich set to music (one poem per movement) are earthily vernacular and cover every aspect of Soviet life. *
Tonight's recording is historically significant as is the performance with Eugene Ormandy conducting the Philadelphia Orchestra along with the Male Chorus of the Mendelssohn Club, Philadelphia featuring Tom Krause, baritone. Recorded January 21 and 23, 1970 (following the Western premiere of the
work by the same artists), in the Academy of Music, Philadelphia, and
released as RCA Red Seal LSC-3162. It was the first recording of the
work outside the Soviet Union, and the first professionally-made one
anywhere. Shostakovich's Symphony No. 13 is in five movements, the last three of which are played without pause:
1. Babi Yar
2. Humor (at 17:03)
3. At the Store (at 25:45)
4. Fears (at 36:50)
5. A Career (at 48:50)
The transliteration of the Russian text, and its translation, shown on this video from the insert for LSC-3162, is by Igor Buketoff.**
1. Babi Yar
2. Humor (at 17:03)
3. At the Store (at 25:45)
4. Fears (at 36:50)
5. A Career (at 48:50)
The transliteration of the Russian text, and its translation, shown on this video from the insert for LSC-3162, is by Igor Buketoff.**
You may also hear Shostakovich's Symphony No.7 in C major, op.60 "Leningrad" with a performance by the Mariinsky Theatre Orchestra at the Konzerthaus, Vienna, 4 12/2010 under the baton of Valery Gergiev over on my tumblr.
While you are listening to the musical stories of Babi Yar, gently scroll down the page to view the sizzling hot gallery of the svelte and sultry in this week's edition of Naked or Nearly So. If these guys don't inspire a little fire in your furnace, then you better check to see if your pilot light is still lit, lol. Additional male iconography can be viewed on my tumblr with today's Hottie of the Day! which features a Black Stallion, Poolside. Thanks for sharing a part of your weekend with me. See you again on Monday for another week of Music Men & More! Until next time as always, Enjoy!
* source: Wikipedia
** source: You Tube Video Description
