Shostakovich: Symphony No. 8

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Music reviews of Shostakovich: Symphony No. 8

Music Review: Scherzi poco alla Prokofiev
Rating: 5 Stars

The first movement took me a few listenings to accept. Part of this delay was a matter of an acquaintance of mine praising the movement above the tenth ... and I am very familiar with the tenth, and the first movement of the tenth is an amazingly coherent span of twenty minutes' worth of music, amazingly coherent despite its departures from the expected sonata-allegro design ... part of the delay in my appreciation of the first movement was, the obvious references to the fifth symphony. Harsh critics accuse Shostakovich of "recycling" ideas from the fifth here; this is overstating the matter, but all the same, hearing some echoes of the fifth, initially got in my way for the first movement of the eighth.

A few listens later, and the "fifth-ish" moments do not faze me; indeed, I think highly of the movement. Though, still, I find the first movement of the tenth superior in clarity, focus - but after all, we do not expect a composer to have the same thing to say in every work.

Probably my favorite "element" of the first movement of the eighth is an instrumentational transformation which is very characteristic of Shostakovich. The theme which opens in the celli, is in the development section given to a breathy flute, and then passed along to oboe and clarinet in unison; and later still, this theme is given to the brass. I think it is clear, even without leaning on Shostakovich's biography to provide too close an extra-musical `program', that there are moments in this movement which produce an impression of immense, brute power; and that some of Shostakovich's most moving music is the contrast of such brute sonic force, melting into such lyrical tenderness as the `naked' bassoon solo which follows this `hostile brass takeover' of this theme.

The second (Allegretto) and third (Allegro non troppo) movements are very "prokofievish," which suits me just fine. The general character of both recall the robust, moto perpetuo affect in Prokofiev, while there is ample detail which is plainly Shostakovich himself. These two movements together strike me a little bit as a private musical joke on Shostakovich's part. We have just had almost half an hour of an Adagio first movement, and now we have not one scherzo, but two. The two scherzi back to back suggest a danger of redundancy. Then, as if further to court this danger, the two movements are fairly similar, metrically and rhythmically. (In all this, I do not find a Shostakovich incapable of making a good symphony of these materials - but a composer who can do what he wishes musically, who knows what he is doing ... and who is being deliberately ironic to some degree. We might discuss what the irony may or may not mean - but I think the fact that there IS irony here must be fairly clear.) Then, what pushes this over the edge is, both scherzi are essentially ostinati which go on and on at such length, that they are in danger of overstaying their welcome. Shostakovich is a master of texture and timing, so that he pushes towards the edge, without quite losing his foothold.

For all their similarities, the scherzi do have distinct characters. The second movement (Allegretto), which is perhaps truer to the "prokofievish" designation, has the sort of cheerful, muscular character which would fit in "Le pas d'acier," only the sustained reliance on the shrill, top-heavy-woodwind texture is very Shostakovich. The third movement (Allegro non troppo) is driven by an arpeggiated ostinato which begins in the strings; when this passes into the brass, it assumes an unmistakable breathlessness and menace.

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