Jazz Suites

Description

An audiophile LP transfer of a 2006 hit from the Brilliant Classics catalog: elegant and exuberant performances of some of Shostakovich’s most popular orchestral pieces. Shostakovich’s skill in popular music and the sharp profile of his personality in an unexpected context can still shock. But he always sounded like himself, just as much as Prokofiev or Stravinsky, whether he was writing for string quartet or jazz orchestra. And even in these clever suites of foxtrots and waltzes, a double-edged quality emerges, both cuddly and sinister, depending as much on the listener’s mood as on the very nature of the music. The First Jazz Suite of 1934, with its plaintive solo trumpet and parodic mandolin, strikingly evokes a smoky Soviet jazz club. At the same time, the distilled invention of the three short movements highlights Shostakovich’s early experiences as a pianist accompanying silent films - he could capture a scene or an atmosphere in sound almost at will. The Second Jazz Suite - wrongly known as the First Suite for Variety Orchestra - is a later creation by Gerard McBurney after the score of the original, composed in 1938, was lost during the war. If the festive opening is known as an exuberant concert opener, its later counterpart remains rare, at least in concert. Shostakovich wrote the Overture on Russian and Kyrgyz Folk Themes in 1963 in honor of the centenary of Kyrgyzstan’s voluntary incorporation into the Russian state. An occasional work, solemn and ceremonial, it was overlooked alongside the Twelfth Symphony from two years earlier, but this Ukrainian recording gives it an authentically sharp edge and a steel-bright sheen. In a review of the Jazz Suites upon their initial release, Classics Today noted: “The National Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine creates an authentic sound - supple rather than lush - for this music and plays with excellent ensemble... Conductor Theodore Kuchar deserves credit for making the suite consistently entertaining... The listener can hear these pieces from the master’s workbench, at least in friendly performances.”