Unusual thing to post on here but I thought I would just share a musical gem amongst fellow musicians !
So, ...the orchestra has been looking for a new percussionist for a couple of months . We have been going through the final movement (iv) of Shostakovich's 7 Symphony which is known as the Leningrad Symphony . It was written literally whilst Hitler's army were being overthrown and the city retaken by the Russians. New drummer joined and the whole piece suddenly turned into something completely different with a brilliant musical idea . Listen to the last 3 minutes.
Without sounding to pompous, the theme is very simple at 1:15:30 which then gets quite jazzed up with some beautiful chord structures sliding underneath building up to a great crescendo and the sense of lifting / liberation of the city ... we kind of all got that and fell in love with the music in previous rehearsals ...but then during the first rehearsal with the new drummer the conductor refers for the first time to 'implied gun fire, bombing and collapsing buildings' that apparently Shostakovich could hear as he was writing the music! - you can hear that with the timpanis ...but then for me the electric bit is 1:17:00 onwards, beautiful climactic melody but with the piercing snare drum ringing out as if they are 'house clearing' pistol fire ...in a small orchestra pit make you feel like you should be ducking for cover !.
It is well worth listening on headphones to get the full effect but an absolute spine tingler of a piece to play knowing the backstory and the music captures this amazing sense of danger at the same time as joy. Genius! Anyways , hope others enjoy this as much as I do (what a difference one musician / part makes to the whole vibe and message of the piece)!
[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sxpYqpSV-vU[/media]