Shostakovich's Symphony No. 5 de Marina Frolova-Walker and Jonathan Walker

0,0010374

Oxford University Press anuncia la próxima publicación del libro Shostakovich's Symphony No. 5 de Marina Frolova-Walker, -profesora de historia de la música en la Universidad de Cambridge y decana del Clare College- y Jonathan Walker escritor freelance y profesor privado de piano. Marina Frolova-Walker es autora de Russian Music and Nationalism from Glinka to Stalin (2007), Stalin's Music Prize: Soviet Culture and Politics (2016), y coautora junto a Jonathan Walker de Music and Soviet Power, 1917-32 (2012). El libro está dedicado al gran musicólogo Richard Taruskin, pionero de la historiografía científica de la música en Rusia.

Shostakovich's Symphony No. 5 será la próxima entrega de la serie Oxford Keynotes, editada por Kevin Bartig, cuyo objetivo es "reinventar los cánones de la música occidental para el siglo XXI. Con cada uno de sus volúmenes dedicados a una única composición o álbum, proporciona un acompañamiento informado, crítico y provocativo a la música como obra de arte y experiencia".

Reproducimos el texto de presentación de Shostakovich's Symphony No. 5, facilitado por Oxford University Press:

The book is devoted to Shostakovich's most controversial symphony, composed at the height of Stalin's Purges. It rescued Shostakovich from official disfavour and deeply moved audiences. The critics recognized it as a masterpiece, but they were perplexed by its ambiguities, especially at the end of the Symphony: some imagined it as the joyful final victory of socialism, while others heard the triumph instead of a sinister and oppressive force. The second interpretation was pushed into the background, but the controversy persisted, with the further complication of two very different tempo markings for the closing section, both of which seemed to be approved by the composer. The authors give an authoritative account of the tempo controversy and the effect of the different tempos on the reception of the work in the West.
Shostakovich's Symphony No. 5 delves into the history of the work's composition, the pressures Shostakovich experienced at the time, and the cultural environment from the time the composer began work on Symphony through to the settling of its official critical reception. At the center of this exploration is the musical score itself, which is full of secrets that have taken decades to uncover, the most colorful of which is the case for Shostakovich's extensive references to Bizet's Carmen, and the connection between these and Shostakovich's lover of the mid-30s, Lala Carmen (Elena Konstantinovskaya). The authors show how Shostakovich largely (but not entirely) set aside his influences from Mahler and German modernists, and in replacement absorbed Beethoven and Tchaikovsky with the same ingenuity as his previous influences. Shostakovich decided to make a virtue of a necessity, and created one of the richest of symphonic scores, allowing himself to retain his artistic pride while winning the official approval necessary for regaining his livelihood. These events all unfolded in the atmosphere of terror created by Stalin's "Great Purge". This book is the first to be devoted to this watershed symphony, and includes secrets of the score that took decades to uncover.

Contenidos de Shostakovich's Symphony No. 5

Acknowledgements
About the Companion Website
Note on Transliteration
List of Themes

Prelude
Chapter 1. From the Fourth to the Fifth

1. "This is Chaos, Not Music"
2. (Not) The Fourth Symphony
3. The Birth of the Fifth
4. Three Streams of Reception

Chapter 2. Musical Contexts

1. Beethoven and Tchaikovsky
2. Hindemith and Mahler
3. Shostakovich's "Eclecticism"

Chapter 3. The Phantom Program

1. Intelligentsia and Revolution
2. "Maturation of Personality"

Chapter 4. The Faulty Metronome

1. Mravinsky vs Bernstein
2. Between the Two Poles

Chapter 5. A Formula for Triumph

1. The Great Citizen
2. The Triumph Formula
3. The Missing Theme

Chapter 6 The End of the Affair

1. A Secret Uncovered
2. First Movement
3. Second Movement
4. Third Movement
5. Fourth Movement
6. Motto and Monogram
7. Other Secrets

Postlude

Index