Dmitri Shostakovich: The Golden Age (Complete Ballet) - Gennady Rozhdestvensky

Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com
This great work has a wacky and complicated plot that involves a Soviet athletic team's adventures in the decadent and capitalistic West. Musically, the Western locale offered the composer a chance to indulge his enjoyment of Jazz and other "bourgeois" art forms, and you get the distinct impression that it's the naughty bits that interested the composer most. When Stalin saw Shostakovich's third ballet, The Limpid Stream, and condemned his music, all three of his dance works disappeared from sight without a trace. The composer never wrote another. It wasn't until a few years ago that Gennadi Rozhdestvensky revived the work in its complete form, and this magnificent recording is the result. --David Hurwitz

Amazon.com
Shostakovich's ballet music tends to reflect the Soviet proletarian optimism of the 1920s and '30s. His ballets of this period tend to be filled with images of muscular factory workers and happy, devoted farmers in clockwork routines, working for the collective whole. Shostakovich's ballet, The Golden Age (1930), is from this period and is full of goofy waltz rhythms and buoyant, frenetic melodies. The actual production of the ballet was a failure, but not because of the music. No one knew... read more

Dmitri Shostakovich: The Golden Age (Complete Ballet) - Gennady Rozhdestvensky

Dmitri Shostakovich: The Golden Age (Complete Ballet) - Gennady Rozhdestvensky, Music, Dmitry Shostakovich, Gennady Rozhdestvensky, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra, 20th/21st Century Ballet, Ballet, Classical, Classical Composers, Orchestral, Suite for Orchestra

Average customer rating:

Not a dull moment - A neglected masterpiece

Good performance of a quite forgotten work.

Dmitri Shostakovich: The Golden Age (Complete Ballet) - Gennady Rozhdestvensky
Dmitry Shostakovich , Gennady Rozhdestvensky , and Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra
Manufacturer: Chandos
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

Ballets | Ballets & Dances | Classical | Styles | Music
Suites | Forms & Genres | Classical | Styles | Music
Ballets & Dances | Modern, 20th, & 21st Century | Historical Periods | Classical | Styles | Music
General | Classical | Styles | Music
All Works by Shostakovich | Shostakovich, Dmitri | ( S ) | Featured Composers, A-Z | Classical | Styles | Music
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ASIN: B000000AU2
Release Date: 1994-02-01

Tracks:

The Golden Age: Act I: 1. Prelude
The Golden Age: Act I: 2. Dance Of The Maitre d'Hotel And The Aristocrats
The Golden Age: Act I: 3. Sportsmen's Training Session
The Golden Age: Act I: 4. Entrance Of The Maitre d'Hotel And The Aristocrats
The Golden Age: Act I: 5. Dance Of The Tennis Players And Training Session
The Golden Age: Act I: 6. The Maitre d'Hotel Reports
The Golden Age: Act I: 7. Preparations For The Diva's Visit
The Golden Age: Act I: 8. Dance Of The Golden Youths
The Golden Age: Act I: 9. Adagio
The Golden Age: Act I: 10. Dance Of The Diva And Tanya
The Golden Age: Act I: 11. Dance
The Golden Age: Act I: 12. Conversation Between The Diva And The Hero
The Golden Age: Act I: 13. Dance Of The Diva And The Hero
The Golden Age: Act I: 14. Dance Of The Negro And The White Man
The Golden Age: Act I: 15. General Dance
The Golden Age: Act I: 16. General Confusion
The Golden Age: Act I: 17. The Diva's Despair
The Golden Age: Act I: 18. Conversation Between The VIP And ...
The Golden Age: Act I: 19. Fox-trot
The Golden Age: Act I: 20. Gallop
The Golden Age: Act II: March
The Golden Age: Act II: 22. Football

Tracks:

The Golden Age: Act II: 23. Interlude
The Golden Age: Act II: 24. Dance Of Tanya And Sportsmen From U-Town
The Golden Age: Act II: 25. Sports Contest
The Golden Age: Act II: 26. Scene And Exit Of The Soviet
The Golden Age: Act II: 27. Interlude
The Golden Age: Act II: 28. Tango
The Golden Age: Act II: 29. Tap Dance
The Golden Age: Act II: 30. Polka
The Golden Age: Act II: 31. Eccentric Dance
The Golden Age: Act II: 32. Andante
The Golden Age: Act II: 33. Allegro vivace
The Golden Age: Act III: 34. Adagio
The Golden Age: Act III: 35. Adagio
The Golden Age: Act III: 36. Allegro
The Golden Age: 37. Finale

Amazon.com

This great work has a wacky and complicated plot that involves a Soviet athletic team's adventures in the decadent and capitalistic West. Musically, the Western locale offered the composer a chance to indulge his enjoyment of Jazz and other "bourgeois" art forms, and you get the distinct impression that it's the naughty bits that interested the composer most. When Stalin saw Shostakovich's third ballet, The Limpid Stream, and condemned his music, all three of his dance works disappeared from sight without a trace. The composer never wrote another. It wasn't until a few years ago that Gennadi Rozhdestvensky revived the work in its complete form, and this magnificent recording is the result. --David Hurwitz

Amazon.com

Shostakovich's ballet music tends to reflect the Soviet proletarian optimism of the 1920s and '30s. His ballets of this period tend to be filled with images of muscular factory workers and happy, devoted farmers in clockwork routines, working for the collective whole. Shostakovich's ballet, The Golden Age (1930), is from this period and is full of goofy waltz rhythms and buoyant, frenetic melodies. The actual production of the ballet was a failure, but not because of the music. No one knew how to dance to it. Still, The Golden Age remains one of Shostakovich's greatest ballets. --Paul Cook

Customer Reviews:

Not a dull moment - A neglected masterpiece.......2006-07-12

The music of the Soviet composer Dmitri Shostakovich (1906-1975) is often divided into an early period and a later period, with the first composition of the later period being his popular fifth symphony. The event affecting the change in style between the two periods was an article appearing in Pravda in 1936, which criticized "Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk," an opera composed by Shostakovich. Apparently, this was an article that appeared at the directive of Stalin, who had walked out on the performance of the opera in disgust. With the publication of this article, the free-spirited, demented, wacky inventiveness (if you can imagine such a combination) of Shostakovich's music came to an end, with the composer adopting a more personal approach. The masterpieces of Shostakovich's early period include the above mentioned opera, the epic Symphony No. 4 and the first of Shostakovich's three ballets, "The Golden Age."

The story of "The Golden Age" concerns a group of Soviet soccer players, who travel to a decadent country in Western Europe. In the words of Shostakovich: "Throwing into contrast the two cultures was my main aim in the ballet. I approached the task in the following way: the west European dances breathe the spirit of the depraved eroticism which is characteristic of contemporary bourgeois culture, but I tried to imbue the Soviet dances with the wholesome elements of sport and physical culture." The problem with this statement is that it sounds like Shostakovich is having just a little too much fun imitating the music of the "bourgeois culture" which he wasn't supposed to like, while the "wholesome" music of the Soviet soccer players seems just a bit corny. But, this is what makes the music of Shostakovich interesting, and a real hoot to listen to.

If you are a Shostakovich fan, you are probably familiar with the four movement suite from the ballet, and if you were entertained by that selection, you should certainly get this complete version. The music from this two hour (plus) ballet is far more varied than the suite would suggest. Also, the suite contains none of the work's outrageous finales. The finale from Act One (CD 1 - No. 19), for instance, starts off as a pleasant fox-trot (those familiar with the first piano concerto may recognize this theme), but the music quickly fugues itself into a frantic frenzy of blaring brass, psychotic xylophone playing and a series of gong crashes for good measure. Come to think of it, "The Age of Gold" contains more gong crashes than other piece of which I am aware.

The ballet is filled with several other distinctive movements. The "Sports Contest" movement (CD 2 - No. 3) sounds like a demented "Ukrainian Bell Carol." Another favorite is rhythmically deranged "Tap Dance." The orchestration of this music is always colorful, and includes some rarities, including a saxophone, a flexatone, a banjo, and in one movement, a crank. Further, it should be mentioned that this ballet isn't delicately scored. The texture is dense with percussion and brass with very busy writing for the strings and woodwinds.

I think the enthusastic playing by the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra is great. The recorded sound is quite good as well.

Make no mistake; this ballet is not part of the tradition of Tchaikovsky. However, if you appreciate the sarcastic wit of Shostakovich, the complete recording of this ballet is indispensable. For those unfamiliar with the early works of Shostakovich, and are curious, this CD is an excellent introduction. Highly recommended.

CD 1: 68:07
CD 2: 65:39

Good performance of a quite forgotten work........2006-02-06

Shostakovich's The Golden Age was his first complete ballet to be fully represented on the stage, something that gave Dimitri lot of troubles because of the complexity of this music in the early years of the Soviet Union, in which the audience was not very open to new sounds and in which the official composer's Trade Union was pointing as `formalist' every music different of the socialist canon based on easy forms composed to praise the benefits of the socialist revolution. In the premiere some of the players and most of the dancers thought this music was unplayable and impossible to dance, something that of course has changed very, very much in the last years.

Based on a sports competition between western and communist athletes, the composition is highly propagandistic, representing the capitalist decadence by jazz and Foxtrot motives and the communist value by the strong and athletic dances of the soviets. Anyway, the music is quite good, typical from DSCH early period, like his three first symphonies, The Nose, Piano Sonata number one or this own ballet.

The performance is good as it's very good the recording too. Rozhdestvensky knows Shostakovich's music fairly well as he has shown in many recordings, but I give it four stars as I think it could be a little better probably if it's recorded with one of the major orchestras.

Anyway, there is no other complete recording of the full ballet like this, the world premiere. I know some other versions of the suites, quite good, like Haitink's one, but for the complete ballet you should buy this one with no doubt.

Track Listings:

Track Listings

track listings

Track Listings

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Brahms: Piano Quartets (complete)

Bootleg / Ready [Import]

Tides of Time

Seventeen Days [Import]

Blue Eyed Soul

Bye Bye Blackbird

D'Helfer: Oraison Funebre de Charles III de Lorraine; Procession de Sortie

At the Hop [CD-single] [Import]

Big Band Swing

Catching Up with Depeche Mode

Branding Irons II

20 Toneladas de Exitos

The Praise and Worship Songs of Yolanda Adams

New New York