Dimitri Shostakovich - The Jazz Album
First of all, this is not a jazz album at all! It’s a compilation of beautiful classical pieces, written by Dimitri Shostakovich, inspired by jazz music. These compositions represent the lighter side of Dimitri's personality and creative input, as opposed to his more sombre works, which speak (through notes) of the woes of the ex-Soviet world and other political and historical themes. These compositions were the result of the trend in communist Russia in the 1930s, when composers were encouraged to write popular music to keep the proletariat (working class) happy.
The “jazz” compositions of Shostakovich gained popularity in recent times as part of the soundtrack for Stanley Kubrick's “Eyes Wide Shut”, particularly the "Waltz No. 2." The Waltz is part of the “Suite for Variety Orchestra” (composed post-1956,) written as a commission for the State Jazz Ensemble in 1938. Firmly rooted in the Vienna of Johann Strauss, it has a much lighter and jazzier feel. It is commonly mistaken for his “Jazz Suite No.2,” which was composed 20 years earlier. It is also incorrectly labeled as "Jazz Suite 2" on this album. Other works that are included in this record are:
-The “Jazz Suite No 1”, written in 1934 for a small orchestra in three movements, it reflects the exuberance and decadence of the 1920s.
-The “Concerto for Trumpet, Piano and String Orchestra”, hugely popular with the communist party at that time.
-“Tahiti Trot” is an orchestration of the 1925 song “Tea for Two.” When Shostakovich and his friend, the conductor Nikolai Malko, heard it on the radio, Malko bet the composer that he couldn’t re-orchestrate the song from memory in under an hour. Shostakovich won and completed it in around 45 minutes.
“The Jazz Album” was recorded by The Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, or, as it is often called, the Amsterdam Concertgebouw Orchestra, which was founded in 1888 and has won many prestigious awards since then. For this release, they collaborated with the conductor Riccardo Chailly.
