Question by The Unnamable: Your favorite compositions by Dmitri Shostakovich?
Answers and Views:
Answer by Catherine
Symphonies, 1, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12. 15.
Piano Concertos 1 & 2
Violin Concertos 1 & 2
Hamlet
Festive Overture
String Quartets – all of them.
Read all the answers in the comments.
What do you think?
Mel Evs says
I love Shostakovich! It’s amazing how varied his compositions are.
‘Festival Overture’ is great fun, triumphant and bold
‘Romance’ from ‘The Gadfly’ is a beautiful tune and gorgeous
‘String Quartet No. 8’ is completely different – Shostakovich wrote this when he was told he was going to die, as a sort of memoriam to himself. It includes snippets of his cello concerto and his piano trio (I think…) and includes the “D S C H” Shostakovich musical signature.
All lovely, all for completely different reasons.
Larry says
Sym #5 — My all time favorite of which is the recording done by the New York Philharmonic from the early 60’s, conducted by Leonard Bernstein. I think you can still find it available on CD, but the vinyl disc will be more accurate to the original performance as it would not be remastered by some jerk engineer who thinks he can improve the quality. I also once attended a performance of this piece when the Moscow Symphony was on tour in my town and it was conducted by the son of Dmitri Shostakovich. His extremly fast tempo of the 4th movement was chillingly awsom. Therefore, the 5th Symphony is my personal standout, even though the other recommendations are all worthy of your attention.
mohsen says
piano quintet
string quartet 3&8
Violin sonata
Piano trio 2
Waltz 2
Festive overture