I would be a bad bad Prophet of Dmitri if I didn't take note of the 100th Anniversary of the birth of my favorite composer, Dmitri Shostakovich.
There's not another artistic figure who has had as great an impact on my musical life as Shostakovich, but that's not the whole story. He is also a personal hero of mine, someone who lived in the most oppressive society in human history and managed to not only survive but also to create a body of work that expresses the reality of life in Stalinist Russia with an emotional honesty and clarity that would have been impossible in any other artistic genre.
When Schuyler was a baby, I promised her I'd take her to Russia in the summer of 2006 to celebrate this anniversary with her. Obviously, it ultimately turned out to be undoable. I would feel uncomfortable traveling in Russia with a non-verbal child, and I'd feel uncomfortable traveling anywhere in the world thanks to our non-sentient president. But I'll be listening to Shostakovich's music today, and reflecting on his life.
So there you go. Some artsy fartsy music jabber for you.
Bush is a tool, but I hope that doesn't ever acually stop you from travelling. That said, whenever snotty Europeans taunt me about the percentage of Americans who don't have passports, it might be handy to be able to blame that on Bush, too...
ReplyDeleteI am up in the middle of the night, Shostakovich Five haunting me-we played it at orchestra tonight-it is on our 1st concert in early November...I last played it many years ago as a student in the U of Toronto music program-it is such a thrill and privilege to get to play it again!!What does Schuyler think of this kind of stuff,like say, the last movement, or does she, yet?
ReplyDeleteHugs to all, Grammacello
I heard a great deal about Shostakovich on NPR around and about the time of his birthday, and thought of you. Interesting what you'll rememeber about a guy you've never met.
ReplyDeleteEverything you wrote in the first two paragraphs could've been taken right out of my mouth. I did a review of all 15 Shostakovich Symphonies for his centennial; you can see them at http://yossarian-lives.blogspot.com/
ReplyDeleteYou say "I'd feel uncomfortable traveling anywhere in the world" but I thought that butterfly trip was in plan. I suppose it is a tad more dangerous to travel now. I guess. In 1984, terrorists set off a bomb in the arrivals hall of Frankfurt airport a few weeks before I traveled through there. I wonder why terrorists don't set off bombs in the long security lines at airports. Boy Bush sure hasn't made us safer, but he also didn't singlehandedly make the world dangerous.
ReplyDeleteI remember on my first European trip, 1972, how people would look askance because I was from Dallas, the town that killed Kennedy.
Oh, well. Age and perspective are a dangerous thing. It will REALLY make you lose hope! I envy people who can hope that the Dems will come back into power and make things better.
I'd feel uncomfortable travelling in Russia right now...whatever my nationality. Especially if I were Russian. :-/
ReplyDeleteI have dreamed of going to St. Petersburg, but with conditions being little different now than they were under communism, I've reconsidered.
Shado