Shostakovich Symphony No.13, Prom 48, Gergiev
Mr Duffy
Theatre at the Royal Albert Hall in Shostakovich's 13th Symphony. As you probably
know, after the discussed premiere Yevtushenko was invited to modify the text,
otherwise the Party wouldn't let the Symphony be performed again. He made some
minor changes in order to prevent the withdrawal of such an important work, but
nowadays the Symphony is usually played in the original version. Thus, I was very
surprised when last saturday, at the very beguinning of the bass part, Mikhail
Petrenko didn't sing the original lines
Mne kazhetsya seichas - ya iudei.
vot ya bredu po drevnemu Egiptu.
A vot ya, na kreste raspyati, gibnu.
I do sikh por na mne - sledy gvozdei.
Now I imagine that I'm a Jew.
Here I wander through ancient Egypt.
And here, on the cross, crucified, I perish.
And still I have on me the marks of the nails.
but the revised version, speaking of ukrainan people; then, from the Dreyfus part
on, everything went on as expected, except for the final part, where again these
lines were modified:
I sam ya, kak sploshnoi bezzvuchnyi krik,
Nad tysyachami tysyach pogrebyonnykh.
Ya - kazhdyi zdes rasstrelyanni starik.
Ya - kazhdyi zdes rasstrelyanni rebyonok.
And I myself am one long soundless cry.
Above the thousand thousands buried here.
I am every old man here shot dead.
I am every child here shot dead.
As the BBC commentary did not mention this, nor did their liner notes, nor Gergiev
in the interview broadcast during the intermission, does anybody know or can
suggest the reasons behind this choice? Another question: has anybody got a
complete transliteration and translation of the modified parts? I only know that
the final part was changed to
I think about Russia's heroic feats,
In blocking fascism's path.
To the very tiniest dewdrop,
Her whole essence and fate is dear to me.
The performance can be heard here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/proms/
("Listen Online", then choose "Prom 48")
Hi, Mr Duffy
Daria Wieczorek
> Last saturday evening Valery Gergiev conducted the Orchestra of The Mariinsky
> Theatre at the Royal Albert Hall in Shostakovich's 13th Symphony. As you probably
> know, after the discussed premiere Yevtushenko was invited to modify the text,
> otherwise the Party wouldn't let the Symphony be performed again. He made some
> minor changes in order to prevent the withdrawal of such an important work, but
> nowadays the Symphony is usually played in the original version. Thus, I was very
> surprised when last saturday, at the very beguinning of the bass part, Mikhail
> Petrenko didn't sing the original lines [...]
I'm afraid that I can't help you here but perhaps you would like to ask this
question on the DSCH-L list? The information about the list you can find here:
http://listserv.uh.edu/archives/dsch-l.html - and while there are a few
threads regarding the 2006 Proms, I haven't seen a current discussion re: 13th
symphony so far. You question might start an interesting one :)
Daria
Mr Duffy
> > nowadays the Symphony is usually played in the original version. Thus, I was
very
> > surprised when last saturday, at the very beguinning of the bass part, Mikhail
> > Petrenko didn't sing the original lines [...]
>
> I'm afraid that I can't help you here but perhaps you would like to ask this
> question on the DSCH-L list? The information about the list you can find here:
> http://listserv.uh.edu/archives/dsch-l.html - and while there are a few
> threads regarding the 2006 Proms, I haven't seen a current discussion re: 13th
> symphony so far. You question might start an interesting one :)
Hello! Unfortunatly I'm not so keen on mailing lists, in fact I didn't succeed in
subscribing, and I continuously get "Sorry, you are not authorized to post to the
DSCH-L list from the address you entered in the login screen." ... instead, as
I'm able to read the archives, perhaps you would be so kind to post my question?
I'd be very grateful to you :)
Bye, Mr Duffy
Daria Wieczorek
> Daria Wieczorek wrote:
>>I'm afraid that I can't help you here but perhaps you would like to ask this
>>question on the DSCH-L list? [...]
> Hello! Unfortunatly I'm not so keen on mailing lists, in fact I didn't succeed in
> subscribing, and I continuously get "Sorry, you are not authorized to post to the
> DSCH-L list from the address you entered in the login screen." ... instead, as
> I'm able to read the archives, perhaps you would be so kind to post my question?
> I'd be very grateful to you :)
I was about to suggest it in case you can't or don't want to post it yourself
:) I'll do it in moment,
Daria
Daria Wieczorek
> Mr Duffy wrote:
>> Daria Wieczorek wrote:
>>> question on the DSCH-L list? [...]
>> question?
So far nobody was able to answer the question but the discussion starts here:
http://listserv.uh.edu/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0608&L=dsch-l&D=0&T=0&P=7444
Daria
Mr Duffy
> >>> [...]but perhaps you would like to ask this
> >>> question on the DSCH-L list? [...]
> >> I'm able to read the archives, perhaps you would be so kind to post my
> >> question?
> > I'll do it in moment,
>
> So far nobody was able to answer the question but the discussion starts here:
> http://listserv.uh.edu/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0608&L=dsch-l&D=0&T=0&P=7444
That's very kind of you! George's answer is very interesting: according to Yosuke
Kudo's discography
(http://develp.envi.osakafu-u.ac.jp/staff/kudo/dsch/work/sym13e.html), Alexashkin
recorded the work with Solti, Rozhdestvensky, Barshai and Jansons, always in the
original version. The only recordings with the revised text are the ones made by
Kondrashin between 1963 and 1967. So, practically everybody recorded the original
version; may I suggest Gergiev would probably have played that one with
Alexashkin? Maybe Petrenko studied the revised version? Otherwise, Gergiev's
purpose may be to let people know about the story behind the Symphony, but this
requires at least a few lines in the program, I believe.
Bye, Mr Duffy