Classical Head-Banger: How Shostakovich HOOKS Young Musicians

[@walterco000]

Well, I seem to have grown up as a shosta-kid and now I am a shost-adult.

[@TheAmateurPiano]

We are legion (or so it seems from the comments!)

[@nicholasoberling6653]

So did I

[@rebeckyc1401]

This wonderfully produced. Thanks…I will share. 👏

[@youffraita2402]

I'm retired & have loved Shostakovich since I was a kid. Why do people love him? Because he was brilliant & his music is perfect, that's why.

[@iangreer4585]

A Shosta-bro if you will.

[@A.B.H_da-goat]

Glad to know that they're other 15 teen year olds that like Shostakovich 🥲

[@yuk_notkim7658]

Yeah, but unfortunately, I'm not one of them. His music seems a little weird to me

[@lubormrazek5545]

the gateway drug into modern music :)

[@adoge1175]

Yee we are brothers

[@forbiddenfursona]

HELL YEAH MAN (Came from listening to Metal, listened to Shosty, became a classical composer)

[@lubormrazek5545]

@forbiddenfursona similar trajectory...the composer bit just needs to be worked on a bit lol

[@TheRealGnolti]

Even better than discovering DS as a kid is rediscovering DS as a middle-aged person.

[@Ardjano234]

better catch up on concerts!

[@rixtafford]

I first encountered Shostakovich in my last year of high school, 1968. I borrowed a box of DG records from my high school library, all symphonies, including Shostakovich’s 5th. I was blown out of the water. There’s a couple of aspects about Shostakovich that may partially explain his popularity generally: 1. It’s possible to “get” what any of his works are about on the first hearing. It doesn’t require multiple listenings in order to feel that you know what he’s doing. It doesn’t mean he’s simple minded just not obscure. 2. His symphonies are loaded with solos for practically every type of instrument. Audiences like that. e.g. in the first movement of his 10th symphony there’s a long trio for three bassoons-it’s fantastic! I go regularly to my city’s great orchestra and they always perform new and commissioned works on their programs. I can tell you that the instrumental solo is virtually an extinct species. Everything is blend, blend, blend. 3. He wasn’t trying to be eclectic, which practically every composer seems to want to be today. He said what he had to forcefully and I thank him for that.

[@TheAmateurPiano]

Very much agree with this list. I'd add that Shostakovich wrote as much for the players as the audience. It's important for the players to WANT to play their hearts out. His music is often challenging, often an endurance test, and yet super satisfying to play. You can tell when the orchestra is committed to the music, and I see/sense that very frequently in Shostakovich performances.

[@A_Long_Musk]

I think his music is vital in a way so much Western classical music isn't. I'm English, and don't get me wrong, I like some of the music of George Benjamin and Thomas Ades, but a ballet based on Dante's poetry and chamber operas on esoteric themes are not exactly for us overgrown kids. And as you say Shostakovich is far from simple - there are clearly Soviet intelligentsia dissident sub-texts in his music which we simply do not get, but the great Anna Akhmatova picked up on, I believe.

[@philzmusic8098]

Reason #1 is enough for me to classify him as 2nd rate. All great art, be it art, literature, ballet, or music, has far more in it than can be understood on first hearing.

[@ojmay...]

The thing that draws me to shostakovich so much is the ssme thing that draws me to samuel barber. Both have the ability to create musical chaos and make you feel a sense of anxiety and panic, then immediately follow it up with the most gorgeous melodies in classical music

[@TheAmateurPiano]

Apart from being swept into the Platoon Adagio craze in the mid-80s, I didn't truly discover Barber until my mid-20s when my university orchestra programmed The School for Scandal overture. I remember it being especially difficult music, but I absolutely loved it. His Excursions Op. 20 for piano are among my favorites in the 20th c. piano repertoire, for all the reasons you describe. Maybe there's a video on Barber in me, let's see!

[@mihaimangir]

For me (17 years old at the moment), being from the Republic of Moldova, which is an ex-soviet country, I always knew about Shostakovich ever since I was 7 or 8, but never really got into his music until this horrible war in Ukraine broke out. The social situation here in Moldova was truly horrific, everyone was scared, people would flee the country, some would reportedly hear the bombing from the localities close to Moldova. At first I couldn’t believe it when I first saw the news, it felt like a nightmare unfolding right before our eyes. At one point my parents decided we have to go as well because there were real threats of nuclear bombs going out. We went with the car to quite a distant country so I had a lot of time where I was just sat in the car for hours on end, while listening to every piece of music I could to distract me from the horrors that were unfolding back in our neighbouring country, when suddenly I heard the Shostakovich Violin Concerto for the first time. You can imagine it immediately appealed to me, I remember it was the most profound and most “beautiful” music I’ve ever heard so I made it my goal to learn the concerto one day and perform it. I was so obsessed with Shostakovich during that road that I literally listened to all his symphonies and most of his quartets all the way. One year after this incident I learned the concerto in full, I played it at the “Remember Enescu” competition in Romania and got a special prize for it. I hope some day I will be able to play it at a big competition with the orchestra and truly speak out all the emotions I feel while playing it and for the audience to enjoy it to the fullest!

[@TheAmateurPiano]

Wow such a story! Shostakovich's music is there for exactly these circumstances. Bravo on learning the Violin Concerto and for this great comment!

[@Quotenwagnerianer]

I dream of someone daring to perform the 11th Symphony in a country like Iran or China, that desperately needs a revolution to happen. And let that performance be the spark that sets it off. Kind of like "La Muete de Portici" did in 19th Century Belgium.

[@fokkebaarda]

Both an amazing and chilling story and 100% understandable. Thanks for sharing. Success. With the music and with living outside the motherland and being confronted long distance with the horrors of this unjust war.

[@UserI10]

@@fokkebaardaThank you for your reply! We actually came back after about 1 month of being outside Moldova, we are currently here and well, at least this is what it feels like. The situation definitely is not as scary as it was before with some good signs it could end some time. (Mihai - written from my alt account)

[@madaboutvoice]

@@Quotenwagnerianer I share your dream but I also include the western world in which democracy, human rights and truth are regressing.

[@whitefeatherbean7429]

Thanks. I discovered him in 1991, via his 11th symphony, which, when played by certain orchestras is beyond music. I've been a huge devotee ever since. 👍

[@ConnorDalen]

I only discovered Shostakovich last year (when I was 19) by accident. I was reading about the siege of Leningrad and then came across the story of Shostakovich's 7th symphony and decided to give it a listen. I was instantly hooked and now I can't get enough of Shostakovich.

[@TheAmateurPiano]

I was moved to tears the first time I heard 7 performed live. The story behind it is everything.

[@niek024]

@@ConnorDalen I love that you were 19 by accident

[@erikdegeorge866]

I was a Mahler teen, and then by extension got into Shostakovich.

[@molybdaenmornell123hopp5]

Similar here

[@davidroot2393]

The 4th symphony is perfect for you! If I remember correctly, he was studying mahler 2 around the time he was writing it. When he was condemned after Stalin walked out of Lady Macbeth, he withdrew it from rehearsals. The score was lost but later recreated from parts.

[@timro6725]

Other way around with me, heard Shosta 10 when I was 17 and was blown away, a month later I discovered Mahler 2 and there you have the two composers for the febrile youth (ah, and of course Schumann's Dichterliebe ...); grtz from Belgium

[@DynastieArtistique]

@@davidroot2393the 4th is Shostakovich’s greatest work

[@pinoiado]

i am the opposite, I went to the full dread and despair of shostakovich and went to the blissful epicness of mahler (i love both of them tho)

[@christopherparker6232]

I am not technically a Shosta-Kid, as I didn't properly discover his music until my early twenties, but when I did, I was hooked. I borrowed a complete set of the symphonies from my public library. It was one of the old Soviet recordings, not necessarily the best sound quality, but it was the sheer passion and authenticity of the performances, as though the musicians had lived through the things that Shostakovich was communicating. The set was borrowed multiple times. I am not sure that I understood the 2nd and 3rd symphonies at the beginning, but I kept playing everything. The juxtaposition of the beauty versus rawness; humour versus solemnity; rhythmic drive versus staticity; tonality versus ambivalent tonality (sometimes octatonicism, sometimes near atonality) - it all draws one in. One can read between the lines, those subliminal messages about his relationship with the Soviet state and so on. At University, when I was doing my first music degree, we had to do a twentieth-century project module: one of the choices was on Shostakovich, which I put down as my first choice. Unfortunately, I didn't get it and did Mahler instead. However, this was a blessing, as by understanding Mahler's Post-Romanticism, you suddenly discover that Shostakovich is cut from a similar cloth, even if his music doesn't sound exactly the same, although the similarities that there are, are hard to ignore! Incidentally, another choice was Stravinsky, whose neo-classicism also influenced Shostakovich!

[@TheAmateurPiano]

Yeah the 2nd and 3rd symphonies are their own thing, he publicly admitted hating them. The Mahler connection is very real, but even as I (and most others in my university social circle) had my own Mahlerphile phase, when it waned, it never returned. Full transparency: I took a break from Shostakovich as well, but when I returned, I found my relationship had changed, deepened. I was inexplicably more tolerant of the things I'd previously disliked and understood things I previously hadn't. Not so with Mahler, and I still find it difficult to put words around why.

[@GABGABGABSHARP]

I’m 17 and I’ve been hooked on Shostakovich since I was 10. My older brother played his first waltz and I was in love. Then around 12 I heard his symphonies and fell completely in love. He captured every emotion I have felt throughout my entire life, and now I’m turning 18 this Monday! And he’s still so huge for me. He showed me preserverince, love, grief, and strength in all situation. I’ve gotten books and documentaries from him. His life is so interesting, and him as a person was too. I’ve done so much research on him haha! Yet I’ve never seen any of his work live as tickets are expensive. I wish I could though. His 4th symphony is my absolute favorite. It’s wild, it’s loving yet it’s filled with so much grief and yearning for help and care. It’s everything I’ve felt and he’s expressed it all for me. It’s so childish at times too and that’s what makes it feel so raw. 5 is also just a wonderful symphony. I’ve heard it thousands of times and the 3rd movement is so wonderfully crafted. I’ve listened to that so many times to help me deal with my own grief and it’s been a wonderful journey in that regard. His 2nd piano concerto really speaks to me as the childishness and goofiness is just at times there as a reminder that we don’t have to grow you know? It’s so delicate and beautiful. It shows how versatile he is. His first symphony captures this as well. No wonder he blew up! How could he not? Safe to say he’s been a bit of an interest of mine for half of my life. And you know what? I wouldn’t have it any other way.

[@TheAmateurPiano]

Thanks for this great comment! I'd recommend you read a book I picked up while researching this video: "How Shostakovich Changed My Mind". I downloaded the Kindle version, because #instantgratification. I didn't need to quote it in the video, but it really complimented and focused the way I thought about the intense emotional impact that Shostakovich's music has on people. I think you'll enjoy it very much.

[@yinpong]

OMG. I just wonder how other people keep watching dumb videos on youtube, tiktok, etc. When you have BRILLIANT videos like this. Absolutely wonderful. Only 2.55K subs? That's impossible. That's easily the best video I've watched this year (well... on classical music that is)

[@TheAmateurPiano]

Thank you @yinpong that's a huge compliement!! My channel's been around for 13 years, but until recently I mostly used it to post piano performance videos. Really happy to see the new format taking off, glad you found it so engaging!

[@jameschristiansson3137]

@@TheAmateurPiano Your new format has hooked me. Thanks.

[@dwdei8815]

A very open telling of the issue, and it resonates perfectly with me. I'm no trained musician (wish I was!) but a lifelong piano-botherer. A childhood being taken to concerts by Haydn, Mozart, Schubert (and heaps of religious stuff) had simply not nourished me. One Friday evening, on a whim, with a few music-oriented friends, we bought tickets to a thing called "Shostakovich Symphony 4" in Edinburgh's Usher Hall. The cheap return/unsold tickets you could pick up for the price of a couple of beers at the door half an hour before the concert. The whole thing was spellbinding. A savage, massive, complex, hour-long cry of deep human truths, every note of it communicating like billy-o. Four new Shosta-kids were born in that moment. Incidentally, when it comes to musical signatures, Aaron Copland might have used his thousands of times in pieces written in F or A minor - but nobody noticed.

[@TheAmateurPiano]

What a fantastic story Piano-Botherer. More people than I ever expected discovered Shostakovich by way of the 4th.

[@trevorabbott3907]

His 15th symphony, the last symphony of the last great symphonist is like the coda to symphonies as a whole.

[@Quotenwagnerianer]

Indeed. Bernstein made it about the Mahler 9, but that was more the end of the Symphony in the Austro-German sphere, where it originally came from. (not to mention that the 10th, as much as it is fragment, is pretty much complete) But the end of the Symphony in totallity is the Shostakovich 15.

[@trevorabbott3907]

@@Quotenwagnerianer Thanks for your comment. It is also interesting the way he quotes music from the past, Rossini William Tell, Wagner fate leitmotif and others. It almost seems his plan all along. At least the last symphony overlapped my lifetime (I was born in 1962) but too early for me to appreciate at the time. I'm reminded of the movie 'Testimony' (1988) where the ghost of Stalin appears to Shostakovich on his death bed and says: "I destroyed what you call truthfulness. You are, my friend, its long bleak coda into the dark. I'm what people really want you see, they'll ask me back. No black, no white, just dirty grey". Feels a bit prescient.

[@AlainPrevost-v1x]

I discovered Schostakovitch at almost 70 during a particularly difficult period in my life. My favorite works are his Fourth and his Fourteenth symphonies. Indeed a wondrous composer.

[@levinf.5744]

I'm somewhat of a shost-adult. I'm a german, 18 years old. I play classical guitar and jazz alto saxophone. Last year I went to a new school. We had to do 20 weeks of internship and I hated it. It was a dull umpaid job in an advertisment company. I had and have a friend. She is an incredible double bassist. Last october I decided I should go to one of her concerts. I thought "hey, classical music. I dont dislike it so why not give it a shot." The concert started and there were a couple pieces I didn't like and some I liked somewhat. But then the orchestra played Shostakovichs Piano Concerto Nr. 2 II Andante. I was in shock. Stunned by the undescribable beauty of what I had just heard. I downloaded the piece and went to work the next day. And then I couldnt stop listening. The more I learned to love each phrase I felt like falling deep into a well of beauty peace and grief. Well long story short, I now listen barely to anything else but Jazz and classical music and I am on my way to study classical guitar.

[@AnkitSharma-du2wk]

This video pops up in my feed and now i know a great guy Shostakovich (Respectfully), we need more of these videos. Keep it up David.

[@TheAmateurPiano]

So glad it popped into your feed, and proud to have brought Shostakovich into your life. Lots more to come!

[@holdenbraswell6650]

I am most definitely a Shosta-kid. His music speaks to me in a way only another composer like Mozart can……the sense of emotion and chaos, especially in his string quartets, reflects where I am in life right now almost making me feel less alone. Will forever listen to Shostakovich!

[@paulpadillo4591]

Absolutely loved finding this! I was a Shosta-Kid very early on . . . I turn 65 tomorrow and I'm still a Shosta-Kid (I don't qualify as a Shosta-Adult adult since I never grew up . . . just got old). I divide my time evenly between opera and non-operatic music, for non-opera, while I love pretty much most composers two were and remain my musical gods: Bach and Shostakovich. As a kid, I cut my teeth on Symphonies No. 5 and 7 . . . then in college studied the Preludes and Fugues - after spending my youth learning the Bach. Also in college, I was friends with a string quartet who I would sometimes play with, and they inroduced me to the quartets. What a gift that was! I have begun collecting DSCH t-shirts like I used to metal bands when I was a young metalhead (I still listen!). Shostakovich is life-changing. One of the truest giants in music we've been blssed with on this planet. Dmitri Rules!

[@anagglomerationofsorts]

Happy early birthday!

[@TheAmateurPiano]

100% Dmitri Rules! Love this comment, and glad to hear you never grew up. I also still identify as a Shosta-Kid :D

[@fokkebaarda]

Spot on. Everything you said. About every composer and every piece. Great. Viewed your exposé wit a smile and sometimes a grim.

[@TheAmateurPiano]

Thank you @fokkebaarda!

[@timothyyy09]

I come from eastern Germany, close to the border of Poland and 2020 there was concert of the 7th symphony due to the 75th anniversary oft the end of WW2. Unfortunately it got canceled because of coronavirus but I listened to so many online performances that I fell in love with this piece. Now I study to become a music teacher and I learned much more about Shostakovich and his pieces. I’m a huge fan of his symphonies, his piano concertos, his 2nd piano trio but the Leningrad Symphony will always have a special place in my heart and I am so happy that I got to see it performed live by the Berlin Philharmonics last yeat

[@TheAmateurPiano]

Brilliant, and I am very jealous. Hoping to make it to Leipzig for the Shostakovich Festival next year.

[@haricotvert7310]

I am effectively a shota-kid with my 19 years old ! I first discovered him at 17 when I heard the 11th symphony at my concert hall in Toulouse. It was astonishing and I will never forget it. I totally fell in love with his music after this concert and listened to nearly all of his works. As a viola player I played his sonata and it was marvellous !! I think that my prefered works are the piano concerto n2, the 7th symphony and the 3rd/6th quartets

[@Mr3121996]

I first heard Shostakovich performed by Gustavo Dudamel and the Venezuelan youth Orchestra. They played the second movement of his 10th symphony and I was completely gob smacked. I had no idea that teenagers could play such ecstatic and intense music. Now learning about his signature brought a tear to my eye because I’ve heard it in his symphony this whole time but didn’t know that’s what it was. Absolutely amazing.

[@TheAmateurPiano]

One of my favorite comments so far, thank you.

[@edwardwright7329]

Wow! I didn’t realize I am a Shosta-kid!! I played first bassoon with the youth symphony of the Carolinas in 1980, Conductor Trevor Thomas, on the 5th symphony. Still vivid in my memory.

[@Rhapsody110110]

About 15 years ago, when I was 15 years old, I was going through some days of (in perspective) mild emotional difficulty. I was half a metalhead and half a classical nerd, but since metal has no lack of rawness, I literally searched something like "chaotic classical music" and I found his 8th string quartet. To this day I still answer "Shostakovich" if my favorite musician/composer is asked.

[@basedscores]

I was a late bloomer, I meant I was introduced to classical music, at a late age of 17 and I got introduced to him at 20, and now I'm 24. I got him through Second Waltz first, but as soon as I listened to it, he spread within me like cancer, and I got his almost all known compositions, except his choral and obscure works, within an year. He was like a reflection of me, an eerie feeling of being so close to my character, also his music is uncopyable, original, and strikingly beautiful. I can never copy him, no one in the world can ever. My favourite is his Symphony 7, 11, 4, 2, 14, 10, Cello C.2, Preludes and Fugues, and an unpopular opinion, his SQ 15, suite in fsharp minor and many more. And I'm in literal shock that I thought I may be one of the few true, nerd fans of him, but I'm discovering many more fans and in the same way I did. Jeez, man lived a "life".

[@TheAmateurPiano]

I mean, this is why I wanted to make this video... mathematically there HAD to be a whole bunch of us. Perhaps it was just my stroppy teenage attitude, but I never questioned whether my obsession with Shostakovich was unusual. Whenever people asked me about it, often with a whiff of "concern", my inclination was to snap back "Ya totally, and why aren't you?"

[@hello_there3528]

Well, I'm a 16 year old who is obsessed with Shostakovich. I probably really got into him after listening to his Leningrad Symphony for the first time. I proceeded to play it on repeat 25 times over (as many different conductors as possible, using KZbin) over the course of my study period last year. I'm still addicted.

[@ArianSadrayi]

Shameless Shost-adult here, I was ( still am :D ) very much into metal in my teenage years while studying violin, and hearing the Burlesque of his 1st violin concerto on TV was the musical validation I desperately needed. It threw me into this wonderful snowball of my obsession with his music to this day.

[@jeroenl8352]

Shostakovich got me into classical music at the age of 15, now I’m studying composition!

[@TheAmateurPiano]

Bravo!🙌

[@niek024]

I arrived late to the party. In my mid twenties (late 1990s) I attended a performance of the 8th symphony, and I might still be recovering from that experience :-)

[@SaintedDemon]

I am a metalhead, and have been for most of my life. I have never enjoyed short and primarily hook-driven music; it frequently feels trite and anodyne, remaining frequently indistinguishable from the piece of pop played directly before it, structurally and thematically speaking. I have always had a definitive preference for concept albums and long pieces of music in general (think Rush's "2112", Pink Floyd's "Echoes", or Opeth's "Deliverance"), but have never really dipped my toes into classical music, presumably due to lack of exposure from an early age. However, since deciding to learn bass recently (at the tender age of 20), I began doing a little more research into the matter, and discovered that several of my idols adore or adored classical music, and frequently implemented its teachings into their own works. I have since begun listening to some of the classics such as Bach, or Grieg, but now thanks to this video popping up in my recommended feed, I will definitely take a closer look at Shostakovich. The example you mentioned, String Quartet 8 does sound very appealing. Thanks!

[@scharnhorstkaisarbeethoven]

I was walking in a bare field by a stream while listening to Shostakovitch's 5th mvt 3 recorded by Stowkowsky the day of my grandmother's funeral

[@hugofuster7059]

Thanks a lot!! I'm learning about classical music and appreciate the video a lot! Cheers!

[@RyanP-251]

Awesome video!! This is scary accurate. I first heard of Shostakovich from my horn teacher at the start of 7th grade, when he showed me the start of the final section of the 5th symphony where the horns simulate distant airplanes. I was so, so hooked. Definitely listened on repeat probably 100x that fall, at least. Then I had a Shostakovich 5 excerpt for my youth orchestra audition at the end of that 7th grade year. I became addicted further when I learned of the DSCH and ELMIRA motifs. My parents even got me Shostakovich books for Christmas, I was so hooked. I was lucky enough to play 5, 7, and 10 as a kid / uni student, plus Festive Overture, and I also have been blessed to hear symphonies 1, 4, 6, 8, 9, 11, 12, and 15 live. I got my hands on the score of 4 from my local library, of all places, and had a nice 9 month addiction ahead of hearing it live when I was 20. I also love his second piano concerto and play it solo for fun sometimes. As for what I don’t like as much, I would say Babi Yar and Lady Macbeth never got me too much. But I’m pretty much all in for Shostakovich!! I called him my favorite composer from ages 13-20, and he remains one of my favorites.

[@TheAmateurPiano]

Thanks for sharing your story! Completely agree on Babi Yar and Lady Macbeth... the latter is so relentless and just... berserk. Perhaps one of these days I'll get it! I saw The Nose at the Met about 10 years ago and barely made it through, although the Nose itself... the character on stage... is a fantastic device, as ominous as it is amusing.

[@bo0t_menu]

i started learning the cello at 17 to impress a certain someone (it never worked out) and was slowly learning the cello repertoire. i had listened to the bach suites and a few famous concertos and they were all pleasant, but nothing really clicked with me until i found shostakovich's first cello concerto. it was unlike anything i had heard up until then; it has a certain sort of aggression and a sense of motion/action/disaster/something-i-still-don't-have-the-words-for that i couldn't seem to find in any other music, and i was instantly hooked. all of the music i had heard up to that point was consonant and made an effort to be beautiful, but shostakovich seemed to scream and shout while just happening to also be beautiful on the side from there i really started tumbling down the classical music rabbit hole, and did eventually come to appreciate the bachs and beethovens and the rest; i even came to like some more than shostakovich it's only been a few years since i found this kind of music, and i still play the cello, but now it's for a love of the music itself, not for anyone's attention (we're still friends though)

[@TheAmateurPiano]

You’re not alone in appreciating both beauty and aggression, and that’s precisely how Shostakovich’s music gets you. The first cello concerto is a masterpiece!

[@fennecteal]

I'd always heard of Shostakovich but had never really listened to his works. My first encounter with Shostakovich was incredibly similar to yours, at the age of 18 playing Shostakovich Symphony No. 5 with the NYOW. When I received my part my only thought was "what the hell is this" which led my expectations to not be too high, however the first rehearsal absolutely blew me away. I was so taken with the brass parts I ended up getting myself a trumpet! In addition, I found my dad had a vinyl of the 5th Symphony played by the USSR Symphony Orchestra conducted by Maxim Shostakovich which is possibly my favourite recording I've ever heard. Since playing the 5th I've listened to a lot more of his works and have most recently been listening to the 12th (The 1917) on repeat. Such a great informative video!

[@TheAmateurPiano]

Thank you!

[@JohnLockhart-e2b]

I remember in about 1975 at university in Wales a friend told me that the Schostakovich symphonies were wonderful. I was not convinced. Many years later, my piano teacher said that he was a great man for a melody, the Romance from the Gadfly is a great example of this. Last week I just performed (cello) the fifth symphony with our community orchestra. After nine weeks of rehearsals and a performance, I do now believe that friend fifty years ago. I think that makes me a Schost-adult. Next, the string quartets!

[@TheAmateurPiano]

Playing Shostakovich vs listening is a whole other level, and the string parts are both challenging and a joy to play at the same time. The 5th is exhilerating as ef to play.

[@notefunctioncollapse]

I listened to the eighth symphony more than 50 times in one single year. Mostly Andris Nelsons with Chicago but also Haitink with Concertgebouw. The crazy climaxes in the first movement drive me crazy and when I listen to the whole thing until the end of the last movement with the calm C major chord, I feel like I completed like a healing process of some sort.

[@TheAmateurPiano]

Haitink/Concertgebouw is one of my favorite conductor/orchestra combos... was in my 20s-30s, when I was studying and actively freelancing when they were a duo, and what a sound! There's a book I read while researching this video--"How Shostakovich Changed My Mind"--that dives deep into what you describe, the healing power of Shostakovich's music. Check it out, I think you'll appreciate it very much.

[@niek024]

@@notefunctioncollapse The Haitink/COA recording of the 8th is my favorite as well. I had attended a live performance by the Arnhem Philharmonic here in Nijmegen, with a good friend while I was at uni. We needed a lot of whisky afterwards. And the next day we just had to buy a copy. I got the Haitink, she got Previn.

[@solizergames]

I am from Germany (23m) and he was, is, and always will be my favorite composer. I was first introduced to him by my father who listened to his symphonies while working. Piano Concerto No. 2 is my favorite. The melancholy especially helps with lovesickness when you are 15 ;)

[@philzmusic8098]

More than Bach? Mozart? Schubert? Brahms? Verdi? Wagner? Stravinsky? Bartok? Really??? Well, to each his own.

[@terryp3034]

While a student at North Texas, two chance encounters turned into life changing, or mind expanding, events. First was Jim Milne. Met him at a music listening room. He became my personal tour guide to the world of fusion jazz and jazz in general. Little did I realize that he was the keyboardist in the 1 O'Clock Lab Band on the LP that won a Grammy. Next was Rick Sheppard, a top student in Merrill Ellis's new electronic music program. He was always listening to "ugly" orchestral music. Sure enough, one day I heard Dmitri. I was smitten instantly. My first purchase was an EMI LP of Symphony No. 10. And, yes, played it over and over again. Goosebumps and ecstasy every time. I thought of the work as grown up King Crimson. Now, many years later, I'm a devotee of Keith Jarrett's recordings of Dmitri's fugues. This was a delightful vid. Many thanks.

[@TheAmateurPiano]

Also a huge fan of the Keith Jarrett Ps&Fs... the authoritative recording imo. I was *this close* to going to North Texas. I ended up at Northwestern in the end, but NT has a fantastic program with world-class facilities.

[@volt1068]

I was a 8th grade Bass Trombonist in my Texas Middle School Band with a shallow background in piano. At the time I was much more drawn to 80's/90's rock than "proper" classical music, although I was captivated by orchestral movie and game soundtracks (remember this for later). Even when it came to the band program, I considered myself a football kid first, which I was allowed to do concurrently, and it seemed it was only by luck that I managed to make it into a region band the previous year in 7th grade. Then one day, browsing youtube after school like I usually did, I watched Tantacrul's video "Shostakovich - How to Compose Music Despite [ R E D A C T E D ]". The way it presented Shostakovich and his music was very engaging and also appealed to my obnoxious "history buff" personality trait that I had at the time. There were tons of excerpts played throughout that I thought sounded awesome, but never would've sat through a full piece to find before. The excerpt that caught my attention in particular was the beginning of Symphony 5 mvt IV. The bold brass combined with the catchy theme immediately made me think of the aforementioned soundtracks, and I funnily enough thought that the excerpt sounded a lot like "The March of the Resistance" from Star Wars. After finishing the video, I immediately searched for a recording and listened to the whole movement. While I did often find myself skipping all the way to the dirge after that initial burst of energy at the beginning of the movement, I was now obsessed with the idea of finding more music like this. I vividly remember later that week I would listen through all of Symphony No. 5, the first time I sat through any piece of music close to that length, searching for more punchy excerpts, but at the same time I think I started to appreciate how longer forms of music developed ideas. From there it was Shosty 7, 11, 6, and more. For the first time I was actually going out of my way to learn musical excerpts. While it did take me a while to branch out from just listening to Shostakovitch, his music was certainly my gateway into "art music". While I'm not sure I want to attribute most of it to his work, because my 8th grade band experience on its own was pretty great, my extracurricular direction 180'd that year, and I ended up doing Band in High School instead of football, getting to experience even more diverse musical literature. And even though I got to play way more riveting music in way cooler settings throughout my high school life, the cherry on top was, purely by coincidence, that the finale to my last high school concert was the Finale of Shostakovich Symphony 5.

[@TheAmateurPiano]

His history is a big part of his appeal... a section I had to cut from this video (would've made it too long) went into precisely that. For me, the hook was the music, and then when I learned more about him, i.e. that this brilliant composer was also basically a disgruntled Soviet civil servant, personally threatened by Stalin, I swallowed the whole line and sinker.

[@jefferiah10]

Texas music educator here! Awesome video! Shosty is the total package musician for teens and really anybody. Raw incredible range of emotion in his works. Lived through a terrifying time in history and struggled against one of the most horrifying real life villains. The definition of legend. He's got it all! I first came into contact with Shostakovich when I was 14 and had the privilege to play with the high school orchestra for the Youth Orchestras of San Antonio back in the 90's when we did his Festive Overture (the other great piece high schoolers usually get to do other than Sym. 5) and I was hooked immediately. Especially by the horn solo since I'm a horn player. Pretty much love all his music, even the hard to listen to stuff like the 4th symphony. Even that is spellbinding!

[@TheAmateurPiano]

Thank you and howdy!! Appreciate the comment, 100% agree!

[@MrRudyGonzo]

Uncle Dmitri is one of the few composers whose music resonates with my soul. I don't listen to his music, I live It.

[@TheAmateurPiano]

Then I think you would love a book I read reasearching this video: "How Shostakovich Changed My Mind" by Stephen Johnson. Sort of a memoir but with a lot of great history too.

[@jackwoodhouse9601]

I am a current shosta-kid. 17 and off to conservatoire in the uk. shos first came to me accidentally when his first symphony appeared in autoplay. about 3 mins in i watched the video (it was a score one) and didnt pause it till the symphony was over. then i just went deeper and deeper into shos and havent looked bach. i think i was about 14 at the time!

[@TheAmateurPiano]

Great way to start... if only we'd had score videos when I was studying, they're so essential!

[@andreafadani3803]

I was a Shosta-Kid 45 years ago and today I am a Shosta-Adult. I live in the south of Germany, so probably you have to extent your theory of Shosta-Conspirency on a western world level. I heard the music first listing to radio and later I bought the records of 5., 7., 10. and 13. symphonies of Shostakovich. As double bass player later on I was so thrilled to play many orchestral tunes by Shostakovich. In 2015, I was in Moscow and was so touched by visting the grave of Shostakovich at Novodevichy Cemetery in Moscow. And two days ago I visited a concert of an orchestra of talented young amateur muscians which played the 5. symphony of Shostakovich. Before the concert I was not sure if the young musicans would have a relation to this music. But I realizied there is a new generation coming up which are also thrilled by Shostakovichs music. The story goes on.

[@TheAmateurPiano]

Wow, thank you so much for sharing your story. I played double bass in high school and university... can we just acknowledge that Shostakovich wrote some of the BEST bass parts ever? So exhilarating to play! I think Shostakovich is due for a resurgence... I'm going to try to make it over to Leipzig next summer for the Shostakovich festival, which looks to be an astounding series of concerts.

[@andreafadani3803]

@@TheAmateurPiano Yes, David, I agree bass parts from Shostakovich are so rich and important in his music. Orchestras here in Germany are ready to perform next year a lot of Shostakovich's music. Have fun at Leipzig, I looked at the planed concertos. Best of the best.

[@mariomm5735]

My first interaction with Shostakovich was when i was studying music in music school. We had a history class about him and we listened to the 7th Symphony and I was stunned by it. The leitmotif, the history and symbols behind the piece. It was just something that i thought was very unique for its current time and topic. After that in music university I listened to pianists playing him and the teachers also really loved his work. They told us his works were really complex and also he was kinda not the biggest fan of the regime and he tried to put this ideas in his music without some people knowing it, which i thought was really clever. He is indeed one of the most important composers of the 20th century.

[@TheAmateurPiano]

I loved reading your perspective, and couldn't agree more.

[@davidcourt7902]

I am a life-long lover of classical music, particularly A. & G. Gabrieli and friends and all the way through to Brahms and some distance beyond. But regarding Shostakovich, oh no, for forty years or more, it was just never possible for me to listen to the noise, the disorganization, the weirdness, the lack of music. Then one day for some unknown reason, whilst I was at the age of 74, Shostakovich reached out and grabbed me, soul and body. It was an amazing experience. Steadily going through all his symphonies and other works I became wonderfully lost in his music. It was a true voyage of discovery. Nowadays I declare his utter genius.

[@TheAmateurPiano]

That's quite the musical journey, and I'm glad you made it!

[@kondsiccMusic]

Symphony 11 had me hooked right away because of its true chaos sheer darkness that brings chills to me every single time. I was 15 at the time and never quite got over it. I wouldn't say I'm a shosta-kid but some of his music resonated with me really well that I'll never forget.

[@catie9551]

Ive loved Shostakovich since 9th grade when I was around 13. The upperclassmen band performed Galop and I remember my friend and I sitting there absolutely hooked!! I remember listening to the 4th movement of Symphony No. 5 over and over again, and now it feels so nostalgic to me. I loved this video!!!!! I'm so happy to know theres so many other Shostakovich obsessed people out there. Nowadays I'm particularly obsessed with his Symphony 7. I think Russian/Slavic composers are just sooooo captivating and fascinating, as you said, they feel so much darker and different

[@TheAmateurPiano]

So glad to connect with fellow Shostakovich-obsessed folks, it's a whole community!

[@Richard.Atkinson]

I became both a Shostakovich and a Bruckner fanatic at the same time in my teens. 😂

[@rahabintemotiul]

I'm 16, and shostakovich got me into classical music a couple years ago!

[@lloydtatum586]

op 7 preludes and fugues. For the last 49 years, Can't get enough.

[@nicholasfaht]

I discovered Shostakovich through Han na changs performance of his cello concerto in the proms, i was learning cello at that time, and i got obsessed with that concerto

[@AnonymousAardvark-z8v]

playing horn in my youth symphony. that's how i started liking Shostakovich!

[@ChristopherMonroe-gw2zq]

Thank you for this... it brought me to my own youth, in Detroit, age 14, Shostakovich 5th finale in band. And then in the Michigan State Orchestra similar to the story above! I absorbed another 5-6 of his symphones in my teen years, and all of Mahler, most of Bruckner.

[@Parmenter1983]

Yep, all fits together for me, I played Festive Overture back in High School and been enthralled with his music ever since. And when Fantasia 2000 used Piano Concerto #2 for one of the animations it only solidified my obsession.

[@billrogers5219]

I was a Shosta-toddler. I can't remember this, but my parents told me that when I was three they asked me who my favorite composer was (I guess they played lots of records and I heard them talking about who was who). I said "Shostakovich." They were pretty surprised and asked why. And I said "because he's so noisy."

[@shapo001]

That's perfect :) Apparently there is a movie scene where someone enters a record store, hears music blasting and yells at the clerk "Why is this music so loud?" and the clerk goes "It has to be, it's Shostakovich!"

[@jensenbenh]

Good post. I first came into contact with Shostakovich's music when I was 14 learning the 11th. The second movement and specifically the fugue captured my interest. From there, I ventured through most of the symphonies. I was introduced to the string quartet and song cycle idioms through my interest in his music. Shostakovich had the remarkable ability to utilize modern compositional techniques in a much more relatable way.

[@TheAmateurPiano]

I think that's exactly why he's so enduring. Thanks for watching and commenting!

[@technik-lexikon]

I discovered Shostakovich during my first classical concert ever, it was a german-polish-czech youth orchestra. The main piece was Carmina Burana, they played also Ravel's Tzigane and the first movement from Shosty's first Cello concerto. That was a life-changing experience, I immediately dug into Shostakovich's music, at first almost exclusively listening to his bangers (the Scherzi from the Fifth and Tenth, the Cello concerto, the Fifth's finale) but as I grew up (I was about 21 during that fateful concert) I more and more liked his slow movements and chamber music. Right now my favourite Shostakovich pieces (or precisely, the ones I listen to most of the time) are his 4th and 8th Symphony and his Second piano Trio. Next year, both these Symphonies will be performed where I live (Dresden, what a coincidence), Petrenko is going to conduct the Fourth and Michael Sanderling the Eight. Needless to say I'm really looking forward to this.

[@AlexandreRomariz]

Thank you for your video. I am an engineer and amateur pianist from Brasilia, Brazil. Someday in the middle 80s a violinist friend e copied Symphony N. 5 in a tape for me. And so it began...Later, as a student at the famous winter festival of Campos do Jordão in São Paulo, I read the Cello Sonata with another cellist friend. I don´t think we ever performed it in public, though... :( . Even later, I think already in the 2000s, I discovered the Preludes and Fugues, which lay in my piano to this day...

[@TheAmateurPiano]

The Cello Sonata is a great one, thanks for sharing!

[@sergioderegules]

Hey, old Shosta kid here. I first listened to the 5th symphony when I was 19 with my friend and fellow musician Francisco. We were very much into prog rock at the time and we just loved the fifth. A few months later the Mexico City Philharmonic played the tenth. We were swept off our feet. This was a Thursday and the orchestra played the same program the following Saturday. We went back, of course. And the next day I bought the record (vynil, the Berliner Philharmoniker under Von Karajan). And last year I experienced for the first time the Leningrad live. I cried a little near the end, when the brass reprises the theme of the first movement full blast over a string ostinato. Goosebumps just describing it. Thanks for the video.

[@TheAmateurPiano]

I find 7 to be all-consuming in live performance. Saw Chicago do it in the mid-90s and rendered me an emotional wreck, but I wasn't alone. So was everyone around me.

[@パガイ]

for me it was banging the rite of spring around the 11-minute mark on the way to highschool, i was and always will be a stravins-kid

[@fatherglyn]

Wow - I m not alone - who knew? was in my mid teens when I discovered his 5th Symphony - Karel Ancerl and the Czech Symphony Orchestra. It was autumn and the leaves were rustling down the street. I cannot remember why I got the record (think from the public library) but it was around 1970 and the cold war felt quite warm. It just blew me away with its rawness. Now, 55 years later, I still love his work. Of his symphonies the 5, 8 and 10 are my favs. I have tried to listen to the 13th but it eludes me. I adore his chamber music. Why? I think it is his engagement with the range of human emotion, explored in exquisite and, at times, excruciating starkness which attracts. Like Bach, I find it ‘sucks me in’. You mention his musical ‘ugliness’, do you think that Nielsen (symphony 5 for example) is similarly attractive for similar reasons (though not so ‘extreme’) ?

[@TheAmateurPiano]

Yeah I think it is in Nielsen's music too, not just in Symphony 5. Shostakovich by no means has a monopoly on this, and I think he derived it from Stravinsky and Mussorgsky, took the French delicacy out of Stravinsky, and turned it up to 11. I was thinking this weekend about Holst... The Planets was 1918, 5 years after Le Sacre, and there is some of this so-called 'ugliness' in parts... Mars, of course, with the bad-assery of the brass at the end. Talk about an iron skillet... Schnittke then borrowed it from Shostakovich. The problem I have with Schnittke is that it tends to lack balance, sometimes it's just too much.

[@IloveChrome846]

Shostakovich’s No. 10..and other works of his composition, deserve to be popular amongst any age group. No generation need be dumb-downed by the audible admit of the saccharine-coated refuse currently provided them elsewhere. I was introduced to Shostakovich as a teen, myself--even performing his 5th in Youth Symphony. I hold great affection for the Composer. The bizzare conversation between two Flutes, resting on a cushion of trilling Strings in Shostakovich’s 6th, (Mvt. 1: Largo), is insanely gorgeous...my favored of all his works. Your vid brought forth my own volcanic passion for Shostakovich. Forever will be a smile on my face as to my chosen Confirmation name: Dmitri. Wonder WHO influenced my decision? 🤔

[@MontoyaMatrix]

I was born on a tiny farming area in Bent, New Mexico. I grew up listening to my dad’s country music 8-tracks, my mother’s Mexican singers on vinyl records, and 80’s radio and M-TV music videos. It wasn’t until college that I began to listen to the famous Mozart pieces, and the Beethoven symphonies. Even Chopin would not arrive to my ears until AFTER college when I finished my English degree and began studying music. Only after my 30’s did I finally expand outside of the basic Germanic greats. And as provocative as Prokofiev is, or as fascinating and dream-like Debussy can be, it was really Shostakovich who filled me with passion and excitement. And, unlike Stravinsky or Mahler, Shostakovich was more palletable, more concise and defined in his ideas. Shostakovich was ALL of the tutti and NONE of the fruity.

[@TheAmateurPiano]

Oh wow, you were just up the road from me in El Paso. Same goes for me with the 8-tracks (Statler Bros, the Legend Goes On) and of course Mexican music, (I grew up on Lola Beltran).

[@Jack-ir8zs]

Wow I also played Symphony 5 for all-state, it really surprised me when you mentioned that specific symphony

[@kyunglee7853]

Growing up in a family of professional and amateur classical musicians, I repeatedly listened to Beethoven (the popular choice of my parents). Me, being a subtle rebel, went through a couple of composers until Emerson string quartet's Shostakovich quartet album came by. I am now a shosta adult and the renowned possesor of a 'strange' music taste in this family lol

[@paulburkhart5514]

This is brilliant. I discovered Shostakovich at Dartmouth College 1959, as a sophomore at Baker Library making music listening choices based on LP record jackets. The second piano concerto first. And then listening and falling in thrall with every recording available then. I, now think, after a life time of listening, that The 1st Violin concerto, passacaglia movement may be the most sublime thing ever composed, or clearly in the top few. Love this exposition for Shostaphiles.

[@TheAmateurPiano]

That octave passage in the passacaglia is one of those musical moments that rips the fabric of the universe. So glad you enjoyed the video, and thanks for the comment!

[@michaelhennessy4754]

1988. I was 36. I was looking for music that was modern without being weird and obscure. Dynamic to fit the the age. I ordered Yo Yo Ma's Saint Sanes cello concerto from the record store and they got in Ma's Shostakovich/ Kabelevsky recording by mistake. Out of pity, I said I'd take it and would only return it if I hated it. I took it home, I played it and in less than half a minute I was hooked. This was what I had been seeking. I am now an obsessed shosta adult for all his music.

[@stephenerickson8107]

You can't beat the opening of 5th's last movement especially for the brass

[@mishka_bo_bishka]

You’re completely right that Shostakovich has an appeal with younger people. I did a presentation about him in high school!

[@fabiobenitesfagote]

I was about 15 years old when I watched his 5th symphony live. I didn’t know anything about him (and barely about symphonies) and I spent the following summer break researching a bit about his life and his music. 25 years later I’m a professional bassoonist and it’s on my bucket list to be able to perform his 5th symphony. I still remember that performance.

[@louiskravitz9625]

Fantastic video! I have a pretty awesome introduction story to shostakovich. I was a freshman in high school, tripping on acid with a senior trombone player. We were going back and forth playing music, ambient stuff, nothing special. And then he said "listen to this" and threw on the finale of the 7th symphony (the CSO recording with bernstein). My life was absolutely changed.

[@TheAmateurPiano]

I think we all have one of those Shostakovich “aha” moments… however the "7th while tripping" has to be among the most aha-y of them all. Bravo!

[@benjaminmaybury4238]

I was basically this journey but at University. Had a lecturer who lectured on him and heard Shostakovich played by the resident string quartet and then saw it at the local symphony orchestra. So basically this video but five years later in my life.

[@iidank3805]

I am a junior in high school currently and my high school actually has a symphony. In my very first year in the symphony, as a freshman, we played shostakovich 1 mvts 2-4 (with plans to play mvt 1 as well but the festivals we were signed up for said we would take up too much time if we did). Our director told us stories of shostakovich and how his cirumstances affected his music and how to apply that to our playing. It was a very fun experience that I look back at fondly and ever since then I have become a big fan of shostakovich.

[@river9945]

i am currently a shostakid, about to become a shostadult 😳😳😳 i play violin and suddenly found myself getting completely inundated in shostakovich at the end of my junior year in high school and into the summer. the quartet who rehearsed with my coach before mine was playing shosty 8 so i always heard it before my rehearsals, then i played his gadfly suite in youth orchestra (a lesser known suite from one of his movie scores) and had a lot of fun with that, then i totally fell in love with his 10th symphony when another youth orchestra played it! i wanted to dislike the concert cause we have a little rivalry but i just couldn’t! then, i played shosty 7 and also his piano quintet at a music camp over the summer, and saw the venezuelan youth symphony and dudamel do shosty 5 while i was there, which was just incredible, one of my favorite concerts ive ever seen! i’m going to play his first symphony this year in orchestra, in my final concert 💔 it’s hard not to love shostakovich as a teen, i hear it everywhere and it’s so easy to connect to emotionally. digging into his 7th symphony at tanglewood was some of my favorite music making ever. that piece is a marathon!

[@JohnCampos062298]

As always, an excellent production for your chosen modern medium and an ever-better entry in your digital library, my friend. Thank you for this Sunday morning lesson and, having discovered Prokofiev during the same time period as your Shost-adolescence, I thank you further for inspiring my very late-blooming interest in Shostakovich. 😊

[@TheAmateurPiano]

You are most welcome dear friend! And thank YOU, as always, for being the first to launch the discussion! A Prokofiev-centric episode is a mere blastocyst as of now, but it will hatch eventually. If you love Shostakovich, it's impossible not to love Prokofiev also, and vice-versa.

[@vincenturbanowski1662]

My teenage music nerd-dom revolved more around the 19th/20th century french composers who seemed to be inventing jazz theory with their subtle, spicy dissonances and harmonic ambiguity. But as an adult high school teacher, I happened upon a copy of the juvvy non-fic book, "Symphony for the City of the Dead," which is an account of Shostakovich's life and the Siege of Leningrad. Devastating. Anyway, that book and Symphony 7 got me hooked. Thanks for this video and the insight into music education.

[@TheAmateurPiano]

My pleasure, thank you for sharing and so glad you enjoyed it enough to comment. It means a lot.

[@isaacsegal2844]

I was about 13 when I had my classical music epiphany-a TV memorial to Arturo Toscanini in January 1957 that made me want to devour as much of the amazing sounds I had never before paid much attention to. It was another broadcast, a few years later, that turned me on to Shostakovich. One in which Leonard Bernstein showed how different composers treated the same four-note motif (I think it was the the tune of "How Dry I Am"). He showed how Strauss treated it in "Death and Transfiguration" and then in the Finalke of the Shostakovich Fifth. It made me want to hear the rest of the symphony, so I scraped a few bucks together and bought an LP of Artur Rodzinski conducting a band called the Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra of London and plopped it on my Webcor portable record player, complete with carrying handle and flip-top lid. Can't tell you how many times I played it again, but it must have been many dozens. In 1959, I actually saw Shostakovich in person, at a Philadelphia Orchestra concert where Rostropovich played the American premiere of his First Cello Concerto. The subsequent recording, which was made with Shostakovich in attendance, is still available.

[@erkkapehto9125]

I also fell in love with Shostakovich as a teenager but I never have played classical music myself. First I fell in love with metal music. I was playing guitar and drums. Then I found progressive rock and it's subgenres, and at that time I was scrolling a lot thourgh different music forums on internet and someone recommended me Shostakovich 5th symphony. It sounded a bit like progressive metal but just even more complex and nuanced. That's how I fell in love with classical music

[@seven8n235]

Wonderful video! In my college days I took a course on symphony and the professor programmed the 5th symphony. What a revelation that was. I never looked back, now a Shosta-geezer at 76.

[@TheAmateurPiano]

Glad you enjoyed it, Shosta-Geezer... love this so much omg

[@goh2121]

I come from a death/black metal background, but I am also classically trained. So it was just naturally that I would discover Schostakowitsch sooner or later. Some of his works can be seen as the first death/black metal compositions. Especially the scherzo from his string quartet no.8. I hope I will get the opportunity to realize this with a metal band one day.

[@JosephKosowski]

Love the video. I grew up a classical music kid because it was always on in my house, and I took piano lessons from a very early age, and then band beginning in 4th grade, but my parents listened to a ton of classical music, and they did love Shostakovich. I got to know the 5th in middle school and fell in love with it in high school, and I’ve seen tons of his music performed since, (and performed a bit of it too, including the privilege of being in the orchestra for the 2nd piano concerto accompanying Eteri Andjaparidze). I got to see the Emerson String Quartet perform quartet no. 12 a year or so ago on their farewell tour at Orchestra Hall in Chicago. And I got to see the Symphonies nos. 4, 5, 7, 9, and 11 performed in my decade+ living in Chicago as well. You’re right, Shostakovich is a head-banger, and I’ve even heard metal fans say “he’s the most metal classical composer ever.” Hard to argue with that!

[@TheAmateurPiano]

That's an amazing list of Shostakovich experiences!

[@DerSlashfuhrer]

Even though I was classically trained since early childhood as a pianist (gave up the professional pathway in mid-college but stayed a passionate amateur), it took me ages to develop my love for Shostakovich and, to be honest, I was quite surprised to find out about the Shosta-kid phenomenon because most of my musician friends only really got into Shostakovich in their twenties (as did I). For most of my teens, I was an avid Rachmaninoff nerd (as is usually the case with young Russian pianists). I remember being about 13 years old and attending a concert where they played Shostakovich's 1st Cello Concerto and just thinking to myself, what is this cacophonic garbage?.. And then, in high school, I discovered the 1st movement of his Leningrad Symphony and couldn't stop listening to it. Years later, the invasion theme from that symphony still remains one of my favorite pieces of music. (Also seems that in post-Soviet countries the Leningrad Symphony is the most common pathway to Shostakovich, whereas in the West it seems to be the Fifth) But even after that discovery, it was a while before any other of his works started resonating with me. Fairly early on I started liking his 2d piano concerto and the Fifth Symphony and both of his cello concertos (while still in my teens), but I feel that I only truly became a Shosta-nerd last year, at age 28, when I started methodically listening to all of his symphonies and fell in love with the 15th quartet. Despite my adoration for Shostakovich, I do find his music to be very psychotic and taxing for one's psychological equilibrium. Thus I find that to truly feel connected to it and not tire of its constant anxiety, the listeners must themselves be anxious and psychotic enough. Well, at least that's how I explain to myself why Shostakovich mostly didn't resonate with me during the years that I felt my life to be just fine, but resonates now, when calamities of a global scale have grown to become a sad backdrop of one's life. Now I feel at home -- almost cozy -- listening even to his most psycotic and jarring stuff. As for pieces of his that I still don't like, a notable one would be his Second Symphony. I know that Shostakovich disparaged both symphonies 2 and 3 later in his life, seeing as they were written in an attempt to basically get back Stalin's favor after the smear campaign that had been launched against Shostakovich -- but I do quite like the 3rd one, "First of May", in spite of the silly lyrics of the finale. But the second one...jeez, no understanding for that one still.

[@evebolton2236]

I have played and watched a performance of the string quartet no.8 and immediately fell in love with Shostakovich. It's just incredibly captivating music

[@VittorioVeneto-u3s]

I started listening to classical music when I was around 15 years old. He instantly became my favorite composer and I got REALLY obsessed with him. Sometimes I would only listen to his music through the entire day. One day I decided to listen to his every symphony and I think that I listened to the first six in one sitting 😵‍💫 From what I see in the social media I think that he is the most popular composer among teenagers, and I'm glad that he is😊

[@TheAmateurPiano]

It still baffles me that so many people are/were as obsessed as I was with Shostakovich... I had no idea that I was so NOT virtually alone until I made this video.

[@EleleleanorK]

My father (a former pianist-turned-scientist) introduced me to Shostakovich when I was roughly six, upon finding an old record player from the 50's. It was my grandfathers', who also loved Shostakovich, and I believe he met him once. My grandfather was also a pianist. Music runs in the family, I suppose! My first piece I ever heard by Shostakovich, was, according to my father, his first Jazz Suite. Ever since, I too have been obsessed, and now being fourteen, I find a wonderful relief in knowing that no, my father and I are not crazy people, but it is the mere wonder and the ability to captivate that Shostakovich's music has. I still remember my grandfather, my father, and I all listening to Shostakovich's Leningrad symphony on the record player, and drinking peppermint tea as my father worked on a grant. The music has left a lasting impact on who I am, both as a violin player and a person.

[@TheAmateurPiano]

I cherish the specificity of your memory here: "I still remember my grandfather, my father, and I all listening to Shostakovich's Leningrad symphony on the record player, and drinking peppermint tea as my father worked on a grant. The music has left a lasting impact on who I am, both as a violin player and a person." I feel like I was there somehow.

[@EleleleanorK]

@@TheAmateurPiano It's definitely one of my fondest memories :)

[@guimcordero]

I'm 17 and I'm an absolute Schostakovic fan. I discover him when I was 14 due to my father who is a specialist of orchestration. Speaking about the Horn's low range, he schow me the low passage of the fifth. Since that moment I feel totaly in symbiosis with schosta. In my opinion his music continuates speeking in our 2000 millenium about really actuals topics. I'm hook at his eleven symphony. For me the fugue of the second movement is one of the greatest moments in music ever written.

[@MedChemist1]

I found Shostakovich as a teen looking when looking for a good video of a solo contrabassoon on youtube of all things. There was a video of a contra playing the solo from the second mvt. of the 5th symphony, I then listened to the whole movement, then due to only paying for X Gb per moth of internet, went to my music teachers office to ask if I could borrow a CD of the 5th symphony, then the 10th, then the rest. He was more than happy to feed the new Shosty addiction and many years later I've played the 10th on Eb Clarinet which is probably the most fun I've had in my musical life. His music does seem to have a lot of teen angsty moments, but unlike the average teen going through the metaphorical horror of puberty and their parent's 'reign', Shotakovich really was going through literal horrors of Stalin's reign. Parts of his music are the perfect soundtrack to screaming into a pillow and kicking plushies around the room, even if it's a musical memorial to true horror. It's the right balance of crunchy harmony, over the top orchestration and sarcasm in musical form that makes it really fun to play. You spend years learning to control tone and play softly, and there are many moments of his music that require complete control and mastery of your instrument - but that's rewarded with getting to go absolutely crazy!

[@TheAmateurPiano]

Oh wow, two great Shostakovich instruments in one comment: Eb clarinet and contra! That must've been amazing playing Eb clarinet on the 10th... imagine the page was pretty black at times. What a great experience, thanks for sharing!

[@Quotenwagnerianer]

I was way ahead of the curve. My dad listened to tons of classical music, had a big record collection and he liked to share with me what he liked, from infanthood onwards. In 1985 he bought a CD Player. Back then I was 8. The first CD he bought was Mistislav Rostropovich and the National Symphony Orchestra performing Shotakovitch Symphony No.5. As I was already hooked on Mahler at that time, it was love at first listening. A love that never faded. Although I have stopped listening to his music in recent years. There is so much more to discover that he kind of got pushed aside, after I heard all his major works repeatedly. Shostakovich was also the composer that finally made me click wicht chamber music. It was pretty late, I was 19 at the time and heard a performance of some of my schoolmates who played the finale of the Piano Trio. No.2 That was like being struck by lightning. As a result I went and listened to all of his string quartets and that send me back to Schubert and then Beethoven whose String Quartets I also had not listened to intently before. It made me realize that the main body of all musical output of composers is Chamber Music, and not listening to it deprived me of countless hours of their most important musical utterings.

[@ArmanGushchyan]

After being obsessed with all kinds of electronic and rock music of the 90s, as 16/17 y. o. I was introduced to some „serious“ classical music, among which were Scriabin, Rachmaninoff, Shostakovich and Schnittke. Together with Bach they turned whole my life around, and I decided to become a composer :) In particular it was Shostakovich‘s 10th symphony which I listened to on repeat perhaps 100 times. His music has indeed the rebellious and raw energy, and the angular uncomfortable aesthetics all so close to the teen‘s emotional world. I didn’t know it has even a statistical proof. Thank you for this discovery.

[@Ragwald3]

I'm a writer and used Sjostakovitj's first Cello concerto as the theme of my fantasy setting when writing to inspire myself. When I later got involved in writing lyrics for a metal album based on my books, I initially found that music hard to approach. I then pictured it as a Sjostakovitj piece, thinking that I had to listen carefully several times until I understood the complexity, and it worked!

[@TheAmateurPiano]

Brilliant!

[@MrDSCH-ib2mx]

I am a really devoted Shostakovich fan!! My first time listening to his music was when I was around 15 years old. The piece I heard back then was his 10th symphony 2nd movement, and words cannot describe how overwhelming the whole experience was!! Ever since then Shostakovich became one of my most favorite composers ever!!

[@MrGumby385]

The 5th Symphony also drew me in…played clarinet in high school symphonic band, and we played the 4th movement for a competition. As soon as I listened to the other movements, I was hooked. Also played Festive Overture, which is such a fantastically exciting piece.

[@zjschrage]

My first intro to Shosty was in highschool with his chamber quartet. I did not hear any of his symphonies until I got to college where I got to play his 5th symphony, and that was really what got me loving his music. It seems that the 5th is the "gateway drug" of his symphonies, and the next natural progression is his 7th.

[@mangstadt1]

My first exposure to Shostakovich came in 1985. Mstislav Rostropovich conducted the 5th symphony with the Spanish Radio and Television Symphony Orchestra. I've attended many concerts featuring his music. The most memorable one was back in 1990 (year up or down). Gennadi Rosthdestvensky conducted the Leningrad (7th) with a Soviet Orchestra with a very long name. When the invasion theme and variations came along, he put down the baton and started directing the musicians with his eyes. I was seated in the choir stalls behind the musicians, so I saw this face on. By the fourth or fifth variation I had tears rolling down both cheeks. It was mesmerising. Then, in the second movement, the guy seated to my left went into a rote--unconsciously. He started scratching himself in a randon sequence: left eyebrow, right shoulder, left elbow, right knee, the vicinity of his scrotum, then back up again to his eyebrow... I didn't know what to do. It was annoying as hell. I suddenly had a bright idea. I took out my entry ticket and wrote on it: HAVE YOU GOT FLEAS? (in Spanish, ¿Tiene usted pulgas?) and handed it to him. He verbally defecated upon all my dead ancestors, shot up and jumped over me and the two people to my right and sat there for the rest of the concert. A couple of years later I saw him at a concert that was part of a series: the Borodin Quartet played the 15 string quartets over five or six evenings. I know he recognised me, but there was no animosity.

[@mangstadt1]

Random sequence. N and M are deskmates on my computer--and most others.

[@TheAmateurPiano]

Easily the strangest Shostakovich experience posted here yet, yikes!

[@abrahamdagamer]

Ironically for me, it also was the 5th symphony. I am a bassist and it was my first excerpt for a youth orchestra that I tried. I am currently part of the Houston Youth Symphony and been for 2 years now. Shostakovich has been such an icon and inspiration for me, given that he pushed through a lot of hardship, kept hope in soviet Russia, still delivered powerful music. I even recently did a project on him as a presentation! (16)

[@brianvanderspuy4514]

I grew up with classical music, and thus, my teenage rebellion phase took the form of listening to the classical equivalent of heavy metal: Stravinsky, Bartok, and of course our pal Shostakovich. All that beautiful angst! Gotta love it. :-)

[@nicholasschroeder3678]

Yeah, college years I fell in love with the diabolical trio as well!😋

[@richardcleveland8549]

I was in my late teens when I stumbled onto both Prokofiev and Shostakovich, probably as a college freshman. I grew up loving classical music and hating rock and roll, so some of the hairier moments of the works of P&S required a little attitude adjustment . . . but once I opened that door, I was hooked. Over the years I acquired numerous LPs of works by the two Russians (and, BTW, I was a little surprised that you didn't mention Prokofiev as an influence; he was, after all, senior to Shostakovich by fifteen years), buying records without any knowledge of the music they contained. The record player died eventually, and I went a dozen years without playing any records . . . until, forced to move to a smaller apartment, I gave up my collection of 700 records. One of the joys of the internet (especially YT) is that that so much varied classical music is available . . . one item of which is a complete video of Shostakovich's opera "The Nose" . . . which I look forward to watching. Thanks for posting this video!

[@TheAmateurPiano]

You are most welcome! YT has absolutely changed the game and made so many outstanding performances of even the most obscure pieces available to EVERYONE. I saw The Nose at the Met a few years back and frankly struggled a bit. The production was outstanding, per usual, but there were moments when I wondered if I'd make it to the end. Let me know what you think when you watch it!

[@richardcleveland8549]

@@TheAmateurPiano A couple of years ago I bought an EMI CD of the complete "Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk" with Vishnevskaya and Gedda as the principals, an international cast and the London Phil and Ambrosian Chorus conducted by Rostropovich (1990). I listened to it one evening . . . I'll admit that it was hard going, but I grit my teeth and got all the way through. Not many tunes to whistle afterwards, though . . . . According to the notes, it was a success at its premiere in 1934, with favorable press notices . . . until it was no longer in favor after the Red Tsar walked out of a performance and gave vent to his disapproval! Ah, the perils of Artistic Expression in the Soviet Union . . . . 😱

[@darmokt]

I was a Shosta-kid at 18, having been initiated by a friend who was just obsessed with him, and I eagerly devoured Haitink’s cycle on Decca. Another friend/mentor also pointed me towards Ustvolskaya at the same time. As an adult I got back into classical again, and the confluence of this and the endless Chopin and Gorecki mazurkas I practiced under my Polish-American piano teacher as a kid pushed me to my current listening habits, which are very heavily Slavic and Soviet/post-Soviet.