DETLEF GLANERT (b.1960): Theatrum bestiarum for Large Orchestra, DMITRI SHOSTAKOVICH (1906-1975): Symphony No. 10 in E Minor, Op. 93.

Catalogue Number: 03J096
Label: Avie
Reference: AV 2137
Format: CD
Price: $16.98
Description: Glanert has written an opera with the title 'Joke, Satire, Irony and Deeper Meaning', which might also been taken as a subtext for the present work. This musical grotesque - not for nothing dedicated to Shostakovich's memory, for it shares a good measure of the older composer's skillful distortion of energetic, propulsive dancing music to twisted, satirical ends - was a proving ground for music that found its way into Glanert's opera Caligula. Not overtly programmatic, the close-up depiction of humans as animals -that is to say, the ruthless dissection of their bestial characteristics to satirical effect, is achieved in music that avoids avant-garde funny noises entirely, in favor of a tonally-based neo-expressionism spiced up with strident dissonances, and a feeling of adherence to a mid-20th-century idiom in which certain elements are just - subtly - 'wrong'; a disquieting form of musical surrealism, ultimately more disturbing than an exhibition of shock effects. Glanert's expertly employed timbral palette - dark tones and shadows, enigmatic chiaroscuro effects - contributes to the humorously nightmarish atmosphere of the work. Cologne Radio Symphony Orchestra; Semyon Bychkov.