The Missoula Symphony Orchestra, with guest conductor Anthony Spain and guest violin soloist Rachel Barton Pine, will perform two concerts this weekend: on Saturday, April 21, at 7:30 p.m., and Sunday, April 22, at 3 p.m. Concerts take place in the University Theatre on the University of Montana campus. Tickets are available at the Symphony office at 320 E. Main St. or by phone at 721-3194. Tickets may also be purchased at the door, depending on availability. Prices range from $8 to $30.
SPAIN
Sometimes, the word "classical" can do more harm than good to the music that it ostensibly describes. Stinking ever so slightly of musty tuxedos and invoking remembrances of boring people lecturing you with words you didn't understand, the word is loaded with connotations of pretense and formality that appeal to few in this populist age.
Think of it, instead, as heavy metal for the bow-tie set. There are breathtaking, earth-shaking explosions in Shostakovich's music, cascading avalanches of sound that grip you by the chest, toss you into a tumult of emotions, rip out your heart and taunt your sense of sanity. If you never thought you'd find a classical concert that would appeal to your teenage son, this weekend's concerts by the Missoula Symphony Orchestra will set you - and your teen - straight.
There are also crystalline moments of pure calm, moments when you dare not breathe, lest you disturb the perfect peace. And there are moments of lush, ravishing beauty - washes of sound that envelope you like a velvet cloak.
Few works of music - classical or otherwise - venture as widely through the range of motives and emotions as does Shostakovich's Fifth Symphony.
"The Shostakovich Fifth (Symphony) is simply one of the most powerful pieces of music ever written," says Anthony Spain. "It is music that says profoundly what it means to be human. ... He really explores the full palette of emotion in this symphony."
If anyone who should know, it is Spain. The founding music director with the Northwest Symphony Orchestra in Seattle, Spain has made a name for his orchestra in the Emerald City by searching every last nook and cranny of modern and classical orchestral music, and highlighting some of the lesser-known great works of the repertoire.
As the final candidate auditioning as music director with the Missoula Symphony Orchestra, Spain is currently in Missoula preparing for this weekend's pair of concerts, which also feature guest violinist Rachel Barton Pine (see accompanying story).
To Spain, the musical impact of Shostakovich's colossal symphony is owed as much to historical circumstance as to inspiration.
"Shostakovich wrote this symphony in a period of immense fear: He wasn't sure if he'd be sent off to Siberia at any moment, or worse," says Spain. "I think that's why it has such broad emotional content, such power."
Shostakovich was only 28 years old when his second opera, "Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk," premiered in Leningrad in 1934. The young composer had enjoyed remarkable success in his as-yet-brief artistic life, and the opening of "Lady Macbeth" initially confirmed and furthered his reputation as an up-and-coming powerhouse of the music world, with critics comparing the opera to the greatest works of Russian music.
But then, in January of 1936, Joseph Stalin attended a performance of the opera. Infuriated by, among other things, the opera's satirical portrayal of the police, Stalin stormed out in disgust. Immediately, the Communist Party paper, Pravda, published a scathing review, entitled "Chaos Instead of Music." Referring to Shostakovich's music as nothing more than "din, gnash and screech," the article sealed the fate of the opera, which immediately closed and was not performed in Russia again for 27 years.
Shostakovich was crushed. Long frustrated by the repressive structure of Soviet society, he experienced for the first time direct censorship and public rebuke. He even began to fear for his life. This was the time of the so-called "Great Terror," the most repressive period in Stalin's reign, when many artists and ordinary citizens - including friends and family members of the composer - were killed simply for suspicion of subversiveness.
Knowing that he would have to appease the party censors in order to ever have his music performed again, Shostakovich set out to compose his next symphony, the Fifth. Subtitled, "A Soviet artist's reply to just criticism," the Fifth Symphony managed to serve its official purpose: The composer fell back into the good graces of the regime.
Yet it's now widely regarded as one of history's great artistic works of political dissidence. In a biography of the composer published in 1979, Shostakovich is quoted as explaining to a friend: "I think that it is clear to everyone what happens in the Fifth. ... It's as if someone were beating you with a stick and saying, 'Your business is rejoicing, your business is rejoicing,' and you rise, shakily, and go off muttering, 'Our business is rejoicing, our business is rejoicing.' "
What makes Shostakovich's Fifth such an immediately appealing work, however, isn't so much its ideas as its music. From the doom-laden introduction to the last thump of the bass drum, this symphony is awash in the tonalities and rhythms peculiar to early 20th century Russian orchestral music; yet it turns that language into a universal and deeply moving statement about the human condition.
"It's a very demanding piece for the orchestra to perform," says Spain. "Because so much is required from the performers, and because the music is so rich, an effective performance can leave the audience with a profound impression. That's exactly what I had in mind when I selected it to perform on this concert. It is definitely a piece for today."
Reporter Joe Nickell can be reached at 523-5358 or at jnickell@missoulian.com.
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