If I Could Choose Only One Work By...SHOSTAKOVICH

It Would Have To Be...Symphony No. 4
Thank you for this inspired choice!

The List So Far:
1. Ravel: Ma Mère l’Oye (Mother Goose Ballet)
2. Bruckner: Symphony No. 7
3. Schubert: String Quintet in C major

[AudiophiliaChannel]

The 10th is the greatest symphony of the 20th century. Yet, my choice would be the 4th. Mesmerizing and stunningly brilliant in every crazy way.

[OuterGalaxyLounge]

Cancrizans leaving in a giant loophole for box sets... Truly a wily and capricious being. I feel like having a beer with big C and persuading him/her/they to solve various world issues. But, as for the challenge, this one is hard, as I have no ONE Shostakovich piece I value over the others. For sheer enjoyment, I most like the 11th Symphony, that unjustly maligned work. My brain says one of the chamber pieces or concertos, but even there I'm bereft. Cancrizans will be most displeased.

[davidgroth]

Shostakovich is so great, IMO, that it is fun to think about. 4th is a great choice for all the right reasons, even above my beloved 13th and the orchestral setting of Michelangelo Lieder. Such heart. Always with Shostakovich, authentic heart

[poturbg]

I'd choose the 15th symphony. The creativity and mystery of this piece is unique among his symphonies.

[thomasdavis]

I'd keep the preludes and fugues, for some reason I feel like they feel the most heartfelt and connected to his spirit even though I would certainly admit they're not his most ambitious or even most interesting works.

[petercharlton]

Maybe I'd pick the Piano Trio No 2. I played it at work once, probably too loud, and a colleague said "This is the angriest most frightening music I've ever heard"... trouble is, I think she said it in an offended kind of way.

[LordoftheFleet]

Yes, Shostakovich 4 is the work that I would choose. It was the first work by Shostakovich that I ever heard.
When I was a kid, I used to spend my pocket money buying LPs, and I used to go for works by composers that I had never heard of. There used to be a record shop in Sydenham, a suburb of SE London, near to where I lived. One day while browsing around in that shop, I came across an LP with the name "Shostakovich" sprawled across the cover in a big, blue script. It was his 4th symphony played by the Philadelphia Orchestra with Ormandy conducting. As I said, I'd never heard of Shostakovich, but I fell in love with the 4th on the first playing. I couldn't stop playing it. Later, I had to buy a re-issue when one emerged, and some time after that it began to appear on CD. Somewhere along the line, I found the score in the Boosey and Hawkes shop in London, so I bought that too.

[sophiatalksmusic]

Trio 2 is my favourite piece of music, ever. I have been researching the friendship between Shostakovich and Ivan Sollertinsky for a long time now, and the Trio is such a moving tribute to who Sollertinsky was, a brilliant figure now mostly forgotten in the west and one of Shostakovich’s strongest supports. Their dynamic reminds me of myself and my best friend in some ways, and while Sollertinsky’s unexpected death in 1944 was a huge blow to Shostakovich, the Trio, particularly its second movement, revives him, just for a few moments, so we can imagine him and Shostakovich forever exchanging witty remarks and finding solace in each other’s company, immortalized in the canon of music history. The pause between the second and third movements absolutely shatters me every time, as we move from joyful remembrance to a passacaglia locked in a cycle of grief. And the fourth perhaps reflects that sorrow outwards- whether the Klezmer themes were meant to connect Shostakovich’s personal grief with the infinitely larger collective grief of the Holocaust, or perhaps to pay tribute to Sollertinsky’s roots in Vitebsk (which had a sizable Jewish population pre-war), there is a sense that this grief is something beyond Shostakovich and Sollertinsky, whose friendship was only one comparatively smaller casualty of the war.
And yet, given the choice between Trio 2 and Symphony 13, I don’t know what I would choose. 13 got me through the past year- with the war between Russia and Ukraine, the political turmoil in my own country of the US, and my rapidly eroding faith in humanity, Symphony 13 reminded me that there was, will be, and has always been good in the world, people who are willing to stand up and fight for it despite the risks. I finally understood “In the Store” then- the mundanity of everyday life as we live between life-altering events beyond our control, as we know we must survive and care for ourselves and loved ones. Every line in “Fears” took on a chilling significance, (particularly “где кричать бы, молчать приучали, и молчать где бы надо кричать”- loosely, “where screaming should have been, silence was taught, and silence when we needed to scream”). And of course, “Babi Yar” is powerful beyond words; I can’t hear “я каждый здесь расстрелянный ребёнок” (“I am every child shot here”) without aching. “Humour” has kept me going when I’ve just wanted to cave in; Shostakovich and Evtushenko treat the concept with reverence for the power that it holds against oppression.
The thing about why I love Shostakovich so much, why I have been researching his works and studying his language for years, is because I can find so much comfort in what he wrote. There’s catharsis, laughter, grief, pain, love- sometimes multiple in one piece. I don’t think I could choose just one; so many hold such a special place in my heart.

[stefansavic]

Work of genius. One of the his most creative pieces. However, incredible that nobody in comments didn't mention his 4th, 5th and 10th string quartet. Fabolous compositions.

[nihilistlemon]

agree since it is one of my favorite symphonies period

[marknewkirk]

Dave, if I had to choose just one instrumental piece by Shostakovich, I would definitely agree with your choice.
But I will go to the wall to defend Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District from the delete button.
In my view, Shostakovich was destined to be the greatest composer for the stage that Russia has ever produced. He had a gift for characterisation, an underappreciated knack for vocal writing, and great dramatic timing. It is nearly forgotten that the abuse he received in 1937 deterred him from writing more operas - he began The Gamblers after the war but left it unfinished, and he wrote one operetta that is undistinguished and unrelentingly "safe". I think he decided he could preserve his dignity and his life by writing instrumental music where it would be hard to pin down what he was saying. And it was only much, much later that he produced vocal music that ventured into dangerous waters (Jewish Songs, Michaelangelo, 13th and 14th symphonies).
Lady Macbeth gives us low comedy, high tragedy, and orchestral mastery all in one package. It is a true masterpiece worthy of both the stage and the concert hall. At the risk of blaspheming (your god, not mine), I will part with all the symphonies and quartets to keep her ladyship.

[LyleFrancisDelp]

I would opt for the 9th symphony. Such incredible sardonic humor and amazing craftsmanship and orchestration. A truly amazing work.

[aclassicaldisaster]

I’m a diehard Shostakovich fan. I understand it’s not the cup of tea of everyone, but I would 100% choose the 8th symphony. Something about the proportions, form, and palpable nature of the dread throughout the entire work is just fantastic. I maintain that the ending of the first movement is one of the greatest ending in the entirety of classical music (So much so, that it often makes me a bit irritated at the second movement for coming and obliterating the peaceful exhaustion, which I think adds to the effect). I also love how you can hear the trombones almost say “damn” (insert your favorite one-syllable obscenity) in the finale after the big screaming thing from the first movement returns. Shostakovich was always a very graphic composer. If I could only keep one recording I’d choose Sanderling.

[alexanderrostel]

For me it’d be the second piano concerto - looking forward to the day when your BEST and WORST of it airs. ;)

[malcolmxfiles]

YES!!! I was the one who recommended it! What a great choice! And very unexpected! As always, your insight and analysis are very much appreciated. Can't say enough about how great this work is. So dynamic, vibrant, terrifying, sarcastic, hopeless. Thanks again!

[barrygray]

For me it has to be Symphony No 10. A great variety of expression presented in a powerful, unique way that only Shostakovich could create. Brilliant sections where tension is masterfully built over long spans (first and last movements particularly).The orchestration is inspired.

[robertdandre]

shostakovich's quartet no. 15 is a work that overwhelms me every time I listen to intense work...work of a man, a humanist? for whom life has undergone many trials

[OW]

I would've chosen the 13th too for similar reasons, but I think as a representative piece rather than his 'best' the 4th is probably more suitable

[platonos]

I suggest Prokofiev: Piano Sonatas 6, 7, 8. They show his compositorical genius in full scope and are great examples of 20th century piano music. And the pieces prove that the piano sonata form and 20th century avantgardism are perfectly compatible.

[jensguldalrasmussen]

The most wonderful thing about this series is, surprisingly, not as much The Chosen One, as it is reading the often very thoughtful arguments in the commentaries in defence of a neglected favourite work!
Kangooroosanz' cruel endeavour to destroy but one work of a composer seems thus, ironically, to have the opposite effect by spawning even more interest in many other splendiferous works in said composer's ouevre! 😁