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  | NATIONAL SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA OF UKRAINE ~ SHOSTAKOVICH JAZZ SUITES
BRILLIANT CLASSICS 5029365848022 (Barcode: 5029365848022) ~ UKRAINE ~ Classical Music
Recorded: 2005 Released: 2006
This is an album presenting orchestral music by the great Russian composer Dimitri ShostakovichFind albums by this artist, performed by the National Symphony Orchestra Of UkraineFind albums by this artist, conducted by American conductor Theodore KucharFind albums by this artist. It includes the two Jazz Suites, form 1934 and 1938, and three later short pieces from the 1950s and 1960s, a total of fourteen tracks.
Musically, the Jazz Suites have very little to do with Jazz per se, but they were a bold and quite unorthodox attempts to break the Russian Classical Music tradition from its lasting ties with the past, a move that made a lot of trouble for the then young composer with the authorities, which were of course a totalitarian regime under Joseph StalinFind albums by this artist’s iron grip. During his life he was twice denounced by Stalin for misbehaving conceptually, which at the time could be literally life threatening. Only following Stalin’s death in 1953, Shostakovich was allowed to express himself more freely, but still under a tight control of the Soviet censorship, which of course existed up to the disintegration of the Soviet Union in 1991, past Shostakovich’s death in 1975. But of course his later revolutionary work made him the most important Russian composer of the 20th Century.
The meaning of the Jazz idiom in Russia was quite different from what it meant beyond the Iron Curtain, and was often used for political propaganda, when described as the music of the “oppressed masses” in America. Anybody interested in the convoluted history of Jazz in the Soviet Union should read the excellent books on the subject, like “Red And Hot: The Fate Of Jazz In The Soviet Union 1917-1991” by S. Frederic StarrFind albums by this artist and several others. They present a truly fascinating story, which of course I am quite familiar with.
Overall, although somewhat misleading by the title, this album offers a fascinating collection of beautiful music, which sadly is somewhat less popular outside Russia, but is nevertheless sublime and worth visiting!
| | Updated: 30/05/2026Posted: 30/05/2026 | CD 1 Recommend To A Friend |
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