[SACD-R][OF] Попов / Popov: Symphony No. 1; Шостакович / Shostakovich: Theme and Variations - Leon Botstein, London Symphony Orchestra - 2004 (Classical/Orchestral)

Now available in multi-channel SACD as well as the CD recording!
Popov’s Symphony No. 1 “fits into the category of great music in the orchestral repertory that requires advocacy,” says Leon Botstein. “This symphony is a case in which a totalitarian state forced a work into obscurity and ultimately undermined the great talent that Gavriil Popov was.”
On the 70th anniversary of the completion of Popov’s Symphony No. 1, Botstein and the London Symphony Orchestra bring the work to life on a new Telarc recording that also includes Shostakovich’s Theme and Variations, Op. 3.
The juxtaposition of these two composers in a single recording is an appropriate one. Popov and Shostakovich were close contemporaries, and there are striking parallels in their careers. One of the most relevant examples is that they were both singled out and praised by Prokofiev when he visited the Soviet Union in 1927. The major difference is that Popov kept a diary, which preserves a wealth of information, not least concerning the background to the first of his six numbered symphonies, which he completed in 1934. His Symphony No. 1 was the work on which he expended the most effort and which was to earn him the greatest notoriety. “I dedicate this symphony to my dear father, a worker and fighter on the front of proletarian culture (educating young workers),” cited Popov. “It’s about 1.) struggle and failure, 2.) humanity, 3.) the energy, will and joy of the victor’s work,” cited Popov.
Shostakovich had made extraordinary strides as composer and pianist since beginning both activities at the age of nine. The Theme and Variations, Op. 3 (entitled simply Variations for Symphony Orchestra on the manuscript) dates from his third year at the Conservatoire and carries a dedication to his recently deceased counterpoint teacher Nikolay Sokolov—another Rimsky-Korsakov pupil—whose pedagogic gifts Shostakovich greatly respected but whom he sometimes had to seek out at his home when he failed to turn up to classes.
The Theme and Variations is probably Shostakovich’s most scholastic, and therefore least characteristic, work. The Theme is scored for strings alone in chorale style, and might have been conceived as a variant on the main slow movement theme of Beethoven’s “Emperor” Concerto.
If nothing else, the significance of this little-known work lies in its musical self-sufficiency. Shostakovich’s family suffered as much as all Petrogradians from the privations of life in a country torn by civil war, in particuliar the famine of 1921, and there were serious concerns for his health. But there is not the faintest trace of that in his Op. 3. Shostakovich’s ability to disengage from harsh reality would soon become as crucial a quality to his artistic development as his ability to engage—as crucial, but much less widely acknowledged.
Leon Botstein is Music Director of the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra and of the American Symphony Orchestra in New York. He is also Artistic Director of the Bard Music Festival and of the American Russian Young Artists Orchestra.
Botstein has guest conducted throughout the world with such orchestras as the London Philharmonic, the Düsseldorf Symphony, the Bern Symphony, NDR-Hannover, and the Bamberg Symphony. His most recent Telarc recording is of Liszt’s Dante Symphony and Tasso with the London Symphony Orchestra, with which he has also recording Gliere’s Symphony No. 3, “Il’ya Murometz.” With the American Symphony Orchestra he recently recorded a live performance of Strauss’s opera Die ägyptische Helena with Deborah Voigt.
Botstein is also a prominent scholar of music history, an editor of Musical Quarterly, and the author of numerous articles and books. For his contributions to music he has received awards from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, Harvard University’s prestigious Centennial Award, as well as the Cross of Honor, First Class from the government of Austria. Since 1975, he has been president of Bard College in New York where he also holds the Leon Levy Chair in Arts and Humanities.
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Leon Botstein, Music Director of the American Symphony Orchestra and the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra, makes a specialty out of recording unfamiliar but worthy works for Telarc. In recent years there have been symphonies by Hartmann and Dohnányi; now Botstein has turned his attention to the first symphony by Gavriil Popov (1904-1972). Popov was a contemporary of Shostakovich, and David Fanning's booklet notes enumerate the several parallels between their lives. Not least of these was the displeasure these composers and their music inspired in Soviet authorities. They were accused of "formalism" – a damning but rather vague term – and some of their best works had to be mothballed for decades as a result. Shostakovich's Fourth Symphony is a prime example of a masterpiece that was silenced for many years for political reasons. Similarly, Popov's Symphony #1 was banned the day after its 1935 première in Leningrad. The ban was lifted, but this symphony remains almost unknown in the West. In fact, it remained unperformed in the United States until recently, when Botstein and the American Symphony Orchestra took up its cause.
Telarc SACD 60642
According the composer, this symphony was inspired by his father, "a worker and fighter on the front of proletarian culture," and it is about "1) struggle and failure, 2) humanity, [and] 3) the energy, will and joy of the victor's work." If you can imagine Shostakovich with the biting irony, and Prokofieff without most of the grotesquerie, then that will give you a good idea of what Popov's First Symphony sounds like. In the outer movements, Popov's use of angular themes and motoric rhythms is very reminiscent of Prokofieff, and the Finale's climax obviously was inspired by the closing of Prokofieff's Scythian Suite. Rather than just a bit of imitation, however, Popov's work stands on its own. It is a sincere, even optimistic portrait of a time in which there really wasn't very much to be optimistic about. And perhaps that's why Popov's First hasn't gone the way of Shostakovich's Fourth – yet, at least: it doesn't live up to our expectation that there will be a subtext or a coded gesture of defiance. Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar, but that doesn't make it a less satisfying smoke.
Shostakovich's Theme and Variations were written between and 1921 and 1922, when the composer was a teenager studying at the Petrograd Conservatory. They are dedicated to his late counterpoint teacher, Nikolai Sokolov. "Charming" is not the first word that usually comes to mind concerning Shostakovich's music, but this time, the adjective fits. The theme is an original one, and in its lack of ambiguity, not very typical of the composer. Neither are the11 brief variations. What is typical of the composer, even at this young age, is the ingenuity and assurance with which he develops the material. This is a fun piece, and in no way deserving of the obscurity in which it has resided up until now.
Botstein is a good advocate for both of these works, although one could imagine a little more wildness in the Popov, and the London Symphony plays them well. Telarc's engineering is up to par. The music is of more than casual interest, particularly to those who are sympathetic to music from the Soviet era, so do not hesitate if you count yourself in that category.
Copyright © 2005, Raymond Tuttle