Michael Tilson Thomas and the San Francisco Symphony explore the life and music of Dmitri Shostakovich in this film that is part of the monumental DVD series, Keeping Score.
The images, interviews, and research contained in each hour-long documentary had me absorbed throughout, whetting my appetite for each work’s complete performance.
- Howard Goldstein, Classical-Music.com
Shostakovich may have hidden a subversive cipher beneath the surface of his life-saving Symphony No. 5. After his opera Lady Macbeth was publically condemned as immoral by Pravda, the Soviet newspaper, Shostakovich knew he only had one chance to redeem himself. When he penned this fifth symphony, the composer was literally writing for his life. Michael Tilson Thomas and the San Francisco Symphony explore the hidden language of this masterwork. As a bonus, the DVD includes a full-length concert performance of this symphony.
