 |
| Cover design by Thomas Upshur |
Shostakovich's Thirteenth Symphony, based on five poems by Yevgeny Yevtushenko, is one of the Russian master's most powerful works, and represents the closest he ever came to outright public dissent against the Soviet government. So close was it to the composer's heart that he celebrated the date of its completion, July 20, 1962, as an anniversary for the rest of his life; only the date of the première of his First Symphony enjoyed a similar honor. The Soviet authorities, naturally, did their best to suppress the Thirteenth Symphony, banning it after two performances. An unofficial recording of the second of these performances, conducted by Kiril Kondrashin, somehow turned up on Everest in 1967, in terrible sonics made worse by their unfortunate application of fake stereo. This recording by Ormandy was the first professionally made one, done in the wake of the Western première, from a score that had to be smuggled out of the USSR:
Shostakovich: Symphony No. 13, Op. 113 ("Babi Yar")
Philadelphia Orchestra conducted by Eugene Ormandy
with Tom Krause, baritone, and the Male Chorus of the Mendelssohn Club
Recorded January 21 and 23, 1970
RCA Red Seal LSC-3162, one stereo LP record
Link (FLAC files, 293.23 MB)
Link (MP3 files, 113.5 MB)
I'm very fond of this recording; I got to know the work through it some thirty-seven years ago from, believe it or not, an 8-track tape! Ormandy went on to make early recordings of Shostakovich's last two symphonies; I also had the Fifteenth as an 8-track.
Links for my previous posts are now restored going as far back as April, 2011, and I hope to have everything back up and running within the week.
Thank you so very much for sharing this wonderful performance. You know that Ormandy conducted a terrific performance of the Shostakovich 14 as well. By the way, your new service works fine with Firefox. Many thanks again.
ReplyDeleteElliot
Thanks for this version and congratulations (and heartfelt thanks) for your wonderful restorations.
ReplyDeleteDon't use this Mega outfit for any 78's PLEASE!!!! They and firefox want you to install
ReplyDeletethis, download that, upgrade the other -- re all of which confound me totally. I'd like to
hear this sym at least once, but for me, Mega is a total non-starter.
Glad to know you're up again, defeating, or end-running the Copyright Gestapo>
Mike in Plovdiv
Good to see you back so soon, and so productively, Bryan! This Shostakovich looks like a great addition to my very limited set of really early perfromances, which I am always VERY happy to expand - thank you!!
ReplyDeleteMega may be a bit odd but, despite Mike's comment, once I'd installed this & that as requested, their downloader worked really nicely & so it seems fine to me!
All best!
I'm not knocking them, only saying that the installation is beyond me. Also, I think the instructions are for
DeleteWindows but my OS is Linux. [I've tried installing an app
without knowing what I was doing - result, CRASH!
Mike in Plovdiv
Regarding MEGA downloads . . .
ReplyDeleteIf you're using Google Chrome instead of Firefox, you can just download from MEGA without installing anything else.
Chrome is available free and can be installed easily. It has a lot of useful features that other browsers don't (yet) have.
Personally, I still use Firefox as my primary browser, but I'm finding Chrome a very handy supoplement.
And thank you, Bryan, for this Shostakocivh, and for everything else you've provided.
Philip
Canada
How hard is 'easily'? If it's Click on Download then
DeleteClick on Install and bob's your uncle, that I could prob-
ably manage. Beyond that is doubtful. And, is it compat-
ible with Linux. All advice appreciated!
Downloading and installing are pretty much as you describe it. Once you have it, it asks if you want it to be your default browser. I said no, because I wanted to stick with Firefox for everyday uses. This means that when I want to use Chrome I have to open it by hand -- one grueling click on the file.
DeleteI don't know anything about Linux, but Chrome works well on a Mac.
I hope this helps.
Philip (No Techie)
Canada
Phil, me neither.... Decided to risk it. Now - google display says it's installed,how do I access it for use? Shouldn't there be an icoon onscreen such as for firefox, skype etc. The downloaded file is saved, but when I open it it just sends me to ubuntu. As usual I seem to be missing something. [Didn't ask if I wanted it for my default browser.]
DeleteAnd now Mega sez I gotta have an adobe flash player.... More hurdles
for the technologically challenged. Oy!
You mean, of course, Шостаковичь.
I mean, of course, Shostakovich. (Typos of my old age.)
ReplyDeletePhilip
Anonymous wrote:
ReplyDelete"Shouldn't there be an icoon onscreen such as for firefox, skype etc. The downloaded file is saved, but when I open it it just sends me to ubuntu."
You're trying to drag me into a Linux discussion. The Ubuntu site is all about Linux, as far as I can see. I assume there's some Linux doohicky you need. (Possibly owing to your not having the Adobe flash player. I thought everybody had that automatically.)
As for the icon, I only know that on a Mac you have to put the icon where you want it.
As for starting Chrome, the cheap and dirty way is just to double click on it.
As for your comment, "You mean, of course, Шостаковичь.":
Yes, him too.
Best wishes
Philip
Canada
Philip, I'm not trying to drag you into a linux discussion -- just trying to learn how stuff
ReplyDeleteis SUPPOSED to work, but somehow never does for me, who am probably less of
a techie than you. My stepson got this Linux 'cos he said it's more secure than Windows. Does much the same tasks but calls everything by a different name.
Suppose I'd best wait for him to show up & ask him to do it. Don't suppose the
Shostakovich/Шостаковичь is going anywhere, unless the Copyright Gestapo get
after our benefactor Bryan again. Cretins!
Regards, Mike
Hey Mike, if you're still having trouble with MEGA, I've backed the files up on File Factory as well:
Deletehttp://www.filefactory.com/file/18bfknmuxqll/Ormandy_-_Shostakovich_13_FLACs.zip
http://www.filefactory.com/file/474lfuvunv41/Ormandy_-_Shostakovich_13_MP3s.zip
BTW, I've not seen Шостакович to have a "ь" at the end.
Thank you! And you're probably right about that soft sign - it's been 50 years since I
ReplyDeletehad Russian, and my memory now is like nostalgia. It ain't what it useta be.
Interesting sidelight: just d/l Walter doing Tod und Verklaerung from another site, it
was Mega, and none oif the wrinkles as in DS 13. Go know.
Mike
Thank you! Now on to the Ormandy 14th??
ReplyDeleteIt's on my to-do list. I don't have the original issue (LSC-3206), but it was included in the Shostakovich volume of Time-Life's "Great Men of Music" series, which I do have.
DeleteThank you Bryan. I think all of Ormandy's Shostakovich are worth listen (1,4,5,10,13-15, more?).
ReplyDeleteYes, but some of the symphonies are better than others. The 13th is one of the best.
Delete