This Blog is a Lie

            In the early 1930s Shostakovich wrote his second opera, Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District. This opera was his redemption. When it was performed for the first time in 1934 it was immediately a hit. Various journalists and music critics praised it as true work of a composer brought up in soviet culture. Everything was going perfectly until early 1936. On January 8, 1936, Stalin took a rare visit to the opera to see Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District with Shostakovich directing. After the 3 rd (of 4) act Stalin and his entourage left without speaking with Shostakovich or anyone else. The next day in the paper called Pravda there was an article written, ordered by Stalin, that was called Muddle Instead of Music . The article claimed that the opera was "deliberately dissonant, muddled stream of sounds...(that) quacks, hoots, pants and gasps." Because the rules word was law the other newspaper companies and music critics who enjoyed Shostak...

I’m LATE! But there is a reason… The night before last I attend a concert at Krannert by the Jupiter string quartet. I have known the members of the quartet since the beginning of their time as Quartet in residence at the University of Illinois and I have attended many of their solo concerts and masterclasses but I have never been able to make it to one of their quartet recitals. The level of excellence that they achieve in their performance as a group is, in the true sense of the word, awesome. The concert opened with one of my favorite string quartets of all time (no not the quartet for the end of time but that would have been a great pun), Shostakovich’s String Quartet No. 8. This elaborate work starts out with a deceptively slow and peaceful opening that lulls the listener into a false sense of security. I had heard this piece before many times and so I knew what was coming. I sat in anticipation, for once sitting up straight (sorry person who was sitting behind me), with ...