The link back to Shostakovich is a lot clearer here than in Ustvolskaya’s later work, although really she already sounds like no-one but herself (so that it also becomes clearer why the teacher ultimately became the pupil in some respects!).
Absolutely Chris; i’ve not been able to find out if Shostakovich was at the première of Ustvolskaya’s First Symphony in 1966, but it’s interesting how much his Fourteenth Symphony, completed three years later, adopts a similarly astringent tone in its song-setting.
Thanks for the information. I should clarify myself that I wasn’t implying DSCH’s later works were directly influenced by this one; nor, for that matter, do I have any truck with the disparaging things Ustvolskaya had to say about him towards the end of her own life – they sound far too much like sour grapes…
Incidentally, I heard DSCH 15 live for the first time at the Bridgewater Hall in Manchester on Saturday, during one of my vanishingly rare rare concertgoing experiences – no hint of Ustvolskaya-influence in that! Rather stupidly, I hadn’t realised from the various recordings/broadcasts I’ve heard how ubiquitous solo instruments are in it, but Storgards must have spent a good five minutes at the end asking each of the BBC Phil’s soloists in turn to stand for the applause. Anyway, I digress…
[…] bracingly refreshing, invariably mesmerising music on several occasions, including her first and third symphonies. i remarked before about the way in which religious fervour is nominally […]
Unlock with Patreon
The link back to Shostakovich is a lot clearer here than in Ustvolskaya’s later work, although really she already sounds like no-one but herself (so that it also becomes clearer why the teacher ultimately became the pupil in some respects!).
Absolutely Chris; i’ve not been able to find out if Shostakovich was at the première of Ustvolskaya’s First Symphony in 1966, but it’s interesting how much his Fourteenth Symphony, completed three years later, adopts a similarly astringent tone in its song-setting.
He wasn’t according to his diaries. And that was the only performance of this symphony in the USSR.
Thanks for the information. I should clarify myself that I wasn’t implying DSCH’s later works were directly influenced by this one; nor, for that matter, do I have any truck with the disparaging things Ustvolskaya had to say about him towards the end of her own life – they sound far too much like sour grapes…
Incidentally, I heard DSCH 15 live for the first time at the Bridgewater Hall in Manchester on Saturday, during one of my vanishingly rare rare concertgoing experiences – no hint of Ustvolskaya-influence in that! Rather stupidly, I hadn’t realised from the various recordings/broadcasts I’ve heard how ubiquitous solo instruments are in it, but Storgards must have spent a good five minutes at the end asking each of the BBC Phil’s soloists in turn to stand for the applause. Anyway, I digress…
[…] bracingly refreshing, invariably mesmerising music on several occasions, including her first and third symphonies. i remarked before about the way in which religious fervour is nominally […]