classical life

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1. 
   MarK

   So, it seems like The Greatest Expert Of All Arts was right in this case!
   Meanwhile, i wonder: is performing Rococo Variations “without virtuoso airs” a good thing necessarily? Doesn’t the piece demand a tastefully virtuosic approach, at least partly and to a reasonable extent?

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   April 17, 2015 3:50 pm
   • 
     tmangan

     If you mean Stalin, I think I have to say yes.

     I’ll pass on the other part.

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     April 17, 2015 5:03 pm
     • 
       MarK

       Of course that is exactly whom i meant: even mustachioed dictators can, like a proverbial broken clock, be correct sometimes. In this case, Prokofiev must have miscalculated in his desire to appease The Boss, not realizing that He would not like the idea that happy endings were shown as being possible in any society other than the one He chose to promote as exemplary.
       Your “pass” is surprising to me because i am sure that you do have an opinion about this purely musical subject and if so then why not express it, unless of course you are running a political campaign for some kind of elected office in which case not answering certain questions is normal procedure.

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       April 19, 2015 5:05 pm
2. 
   chris

   Love that picture.

   (I did read the review too. Promise.)

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   April 18, 2015 8:45 pm
3. 
   kitsunebi

   A Stalinist. Who knew?

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   April 20, 2015 3:22 pm
   • 
     MarK

     As far as we can tell now, he was never a real “Stalinist”, whatever that means, but after returning to Soviet Russia, he did not have much choice other than at least to appear to be one.

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     April 20, 2015 4:01 pm
4. 
   kitsunebi

   Agreed. “I think they both [Prokofiev + Shostakovich] understood the full, loathsome wretchedness of the political and ideological system that repressed them. But they weren’t members of an underground resistance – they were composers, they were artists. I think that no matter how much talent they put into their work, it cannot be said of either of them that their compositions represented service to the regime. They served their talent.”
   –Alexander Titel, director, Stanislavsky & Nemirovich-Danchenko Musical Theatre (Moscow)

   Permalink, Reply

   April 20, 2015 9:26 pm

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