Suite for variety orchestra

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The Suite for Variety Orchestra is an orchestra - Suite by Dmitri Shostakovich .

The suite consists of eight movements taken from other compositions by Shostakovich. It was probably made in the second half of the 1950s.

For many years the work was mistakenly regarded as the Suite for Jazz Orchestra No. 2 , composed in 1938 and believed to have been lost in World War II . However, a piano reduction was rediscovered from this in 1999 , so that the jazz suite could be performed in a reconstructed form in 2000. Since most of the recordings of the suite were made before this discovery, the work is given the wrong title Jazz Suite No. 2 on many CDs .

The work was premiered on December 1, 1988 by the London Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Mstislav Rostropovich in London .

Waltz No. 2 achieved particular popularity thanks to the soundtrack to the film Eyes Wide Shut (1999) by Stanley Kubrick . Even in the credits of this film, the work is incorrectly stated as Jazz Suite # 2 . Lars von Trier also made use of this waltz in his film Nymphomaniac (2014).

Work description

The arrangement of the movements varies in the present recordings. The following is the order in accordance with the DSCH New Collected Works .

  1. March (Giocoso. Alla marcia)
  2. Dance No. 1 (Presto)
  3. Dance No. 2 (Allegretto scherzando)
  4. Small Polka (Allegretto)
  5. Lyric Waltz (Allegretto)
  6. Waltz No. 1 (Sostenuto)
  7. Waltz No. 2 (Allegretto poco moderato)
  8. Finale (Allegro moderato)

The march and the finale are taken from the film music for Die Abenteuer Korsinkinis (op. 59, 1940, only partially accessible), and waltz No. 2 from the suite for the film The First Season (op. 99a, 1956). Dance No. 1 comes from the film music for Die Stechfliege (op. 97, 1955), and dance No. 2 comes from the ballet The Clear Stream (op. 39, 1934/35).

The character of the movements in the suite has some stylistic similarities to circus or vaudeville music. The instrumentation also shows typical characteristics of variety orchestras such as the division of the violins into three instead of two vocal groups, as is usual in symphony orchestras .

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