Programme Notes

First Ballet Suite:

In 1920s and 30s, while the political noose on Soviet artists has yet to tighten,
there was a great deal of freedom in experimenting with new and various forms
of art. Dmitri Shostakovich was in the forefront of that artistic movement. As a
prodigal son of the Russian artistic scene, he explores the music as diverse from
Mahler, Beethoven, and Mussorgsky to Stravinsky, Prokofiev, Hindemith, Bartok,
and Jazz and Expressionist music. Shostakovich was also a virtuoso in writing film
music. In his thirty years of producing film scores, Shostakovich captures
effectively the mood and intents of the movie he is writing for, whether is the
tragedy in Hamlet, the innocence and romance in The Counterplan (A favorite
movie of Stalin), or the heroism in The Gadfly (A movie about a Russian hero in
the Italian War of Independence in the 1830s). In 1949, Shostakovich and his
friend Lev Atovmian collected Shostakovich’s own works from the 30s in
compilation of four Ballet Suites. The First Suite utilized music from the First Jazz
Suite, the ballet The Limped Stream and The Bolt, which all three pieces are light-
hearted, cheerful, and sunny.

The opening movement, “Lyric Waltz”, though it comes from the First Jazz Suite,
has a more Eastern European tone. The second movement, “Dance”, is in the
style of 19th Century French ballets and somehow evoking the sound of dances
from the Nordic, carried by pizzicato strings and humorous woodwinds, whiles the
third movement, “Romance”, stars an expressive and charming solo oboe in
music reminiscent of the famous, lovely Romance from Shostakovich’s film score
in The Gadfly. The succeeding movements, “Polka”, “Waltz-Scherzo”, and
“Gallop”, embodies the kind of wit and sarcasm that screams nothing but
Shostakovich himself. Listen and enjoy the jokes and sly humor Shostakovich
serves up just for you!