Film Music Vol.3 -Sofia Perovskaya, etc : Mnatsakanov / Byelorussian Radio Symphony Orchestra

SHOSTAKOVICH FILM SERIES, Vol. 3

Dmitri Shostakovich (1906-1975)
Sofia Perovskaya, Op. 132
Viborg District, Op. 50
The Man with a Gun, Op. 53
The Great Citizen, Op. 52/55
Passer-by, Op. 33

Byelorussian Radio and TV Symphony / Walter Mnatsakanov, conductor

Volume 3 of the highly prized Shostakovich Film Music Series, originally issued on Russian Disc.

A pioneer of Soviet film music, Shostakovich wrote scores for 30 films between 1929 and 1971. The program on this CD presents a fascinating variety of Shostakovich’s film music, including the recording premiere of the Suite from Sofia Perovskaya.

Distinguished Russian musicologist Levon Hakopian writes in the booklet notes:
“Aesthetically, the music to Sofia Perovskaya is one of Shostakovich’s most accomplished contributions to cinema music… like Katerina Izmailova (Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District), Sofia Perovskaya is portrayed in music with extreme tenderness… for the connoisseurs of Shostakovich’s art it is really great luck to have this remarkable specimen of his late style available on CD.”

Hakopian also comments that the score of Passer-by, “presented on this disc in the form of a concise symphonic suite, is full of variegated ideas, some of which are reminiscent of Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 3 written three years earlier. The tune “Song about a Passer-by” crowns the whole.”

“Both the Overture to The Man with a Gun and the Suite from Viborg District are pieces in a heroic mood,” Hakopian says. “Almost all the films Shostakovich scored are nowadays completely forgotten… Yet, Shostakovich’s film scores… continue their own, independent life.” ( Delos )