Shostakovich Against Stalin
by Larry Weinstein
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DVD details
Actor: Dmitri Shostakovich, Flora Litvinova, Graham Haley, Netherlands Radio Philharmonic, Valery GergievDirector: Larry Weinstein
Brand: Dts
Writer: Larry Weinstein
Producer: Barbara Willis Sweete
Producer: Danny Irom
Producer: Eeva-Kaisa Nojonen
Writer: David New
Writer: Gemma van Zeventer
Writer: Solomon Volkov
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language); Russian (Original Language); German (Subtitled); English (Subtitled); Italian (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); French (Subtitled)
Format: Classical, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DTS Surround Sound, DVD, NTSC
Picture Format: 1.78:1
Running Time: 77 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2005-11-08
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: Decca
DVD Reviews of Shostakovich Against Stalin
DVD Review: Shostakovich Symphonies In Context
Summary: 5 Stars
I was fortunate enough to hear Symphony 7 by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra last week. As moving as the music was, it has helped so much to see this documentary and understand the world Shastakovich lived in when he was composing the "Leningrad". I appreciated the different camera angles of Gergiev's orchestra, and Gergiev does a very good job of explaining to his musicians and his audience the emotions of the music. I never got tired of hearing him talk about the symphonies. The historical footage put the music in context, but a companion DVD that goes more into detail of the time is STALIN (1992) starring Robert Duvall, currently available on Amazon. The interviews with Shostakovich's contemporaries added to the understanding of the music, which played in the background throughout the documentary. I agree with others that at 76 minutes long, I could easily have watched another hour of this enlightening documentary, but I appreciate that Larry Weinstein has put together this much.DVD Review: Excellent Documentary
Summary: 5 Stars
I watch a lot of documentaries on music, and this one blew me away. The story is compelling, but not told in a didactic way. And, best of all, the music is allowed to speak for itself. Many clips are used, not just in a superficial way as with many documentaries, but as a real part of the film. I especially like when they superimpose the interviewees singing or playing over the orchestra. The music will really ring in your head for weeks and the story told will give it more meaning than ever before.DVD Review: Interesting doc and sounds - awful video transfer
Summary: 3 Stars
Not necessarily the deepest or best organized of docs, this is nonetheless engrossing and, in view of a lack of similar material, invaluable. The generally excellent Canadian Rhombus ("32 Short Films About Glenn Gould", a terrific film about Falla, the title of which escapes me) is behind this. However, their efforts are all but sabotaged by one of the worst film-to-video transfers I've seen. To say that there are artifacts doesn't begin to describe it. So, even though I enjoyed the film and the DTS audio transfers of 70 minutes of complete movements from Valery Gergiev's complete Shostakovich cycle, I can barely muster 3 stars because of the atrocious visual quality.DVD Review: Not that great
Summary: 2 Stars
I was let down. I thought this video would be compelling and interesting but the comments are obvious. The filming is very ordinary and the conductor has nothing that new to say. Also they passed over some of the symphonies like the 7th. This is really a second rate item. Nothing special.DVD Review: Good, but does not stand alone.
Summary: 3 Stars
Overall not a bad documentary, I'm glad I have it but if I could there are a couple of things I would add to it. Simply put its just too short. There is very little about the eight symphony and its aftermath, and therefor the ninth doesn't have its proper context. I don't believe the sixth is mentioned at all, granted it doesn't fit the theme of the DVD, but good historical research doesn't not have a theme. If this is an area of interest there are several books that are of much more value.
Description of Shostakovich Against Stalin
The power of art to defy and even transcend politics and oppression is the theme of Shostakovich Against Stalin: The War Symphonies, director Larry Weinstein's documentary about Russian composer Dmitri Shostakovich and the six symphonies he composed while his homeland suffered under the brutal dictatorship of Josef Stalin. Born in 1906, Shostakovich gained considerable prominence after the unveiling of his first symphony in 1926, by which time Lenin was dead, the USSR had been founded, and Stalin had assumed power as General Secretary of the Communist Party. Thereafter, the composer was subject to the whims of the dictator. An early opera, "Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk" (a depiction of "the justified murder of a tryant"), led to his being banned; his Symphony No. 7, the "Leningrad Symphony," composed as Hitler invaded Russia in 1941, was virtually appropriated by Stalin as great symbol of resistance (which it was--although Shostakovich intended it as a rebuke to all forms of socialism, including Stalin's), but the tables were turned again with Symphony No. 8, which was regarded as "counter-revolutionary." Through it all, the composer's work (generous extracts of which can be heard among the DVD bonus features) revealed how he really felt about life under Stalin, whose regime was responsible for the deaths of tens of millions of Russians. Much of Symphonies No. 4-8 consists of music that's harsh and aggressive, nervous and tragic; even No. 9, written to commemorate the Allied triumph in World War II and seemingly a light, joyous ode to victory, was in fact filled with musical sarcasm, a favorite mode of expression for Shostakovich. A combination of photos, vintage file footage (some of it featuring the composer himself), newer interviews with family, friends, and musicologists, and more, Shostakovich Against Stalin is a moving tribute to a great artist's will. --Sam GrahamRussia DVDs
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