Tear for Two Archive

SHOSTAKOVICH: “The Jazz Album” – Ronald Brautigam, p./ Peter Masseurs, trumpet/ Royal Concertgebouw Orch./ Riccardo Chailly – Decca vinyl

by Audiophile Audition | Mar 2, 2017 | SACD & Other Hi-Res Reviews

A terrific orchestral version of some of Shostakovich’s jazziest works, on remastered vinyl! SHOSTAKOVICH: “The Jazz Album” – Ronald Brautigam, p./ Peter Masseurs, trumpet/ Royal Concertgebouw Orch./ Riccardo Chailly (TrackList follows) – Decca vinyl 483 0960 (12/23/16): Shostakovich had a constantly changing relationship with jazz during his composing years in the Soviet Union. His famous “Tahiti Trot,” (which is really an arrangement for “Tea for Two,” came about as a challenge by conductor Nicolai Malko to orchestrate Youman’s “Tea for Two” in the space of an hour. Shostakovich did it in 40 minutes, and the resultant work has been a big hit in Russia. In his student years, Shostakovich visited jazz musicians and performances with reported his delight at jazz bands, but later jazz was regarded with suspicion and hostility in certain quarters as a residue of bourgeois culture and decadence. In 1934, however, he participated in a jazz competition whose aim was to raise the level of Soviet jazz from “cafe” music to music with a professional status. He then wrote his three-movement Jazz Suite No. 1.  During the early 1930s Shostakovich wished to get back to concert tours with himself at the piano and wrote this Piano Concerto […]