Classical Ping
Knowing what artists went through in Stalin’s Russia, I am appalled that Boulez would criticize Shostakovitch for not being more “out there” and experimental. Under Stalin, all art was in the service of the State, and one look at the architecture, sculpture, paintings, and music of the “Soviet Realism” genre tells us everything we need to know about the creative spirit being crushed by Totalitarianism.
Artists who were lucky enough to escape or defect were able to blossom in freedom, and be as weird as they wanted to be. Those who had to create art under the boot-heel of Stalin are remarkable in that they were able to create beautiful things in spite of their restrictions. The dross has fallen off, the apartment blocks have crumbled, the ugly statues have been toppled, and the dumb ballets about “The-Peoples’-Democratic-Brigade-Triumphs-Over-The-Capitalist-Oppressors” are consigned to the dustbin of history, but we still listen to Shostakovitch.
At least I do. Can’t say that I have any Boulez favorites, though.
Polemics and Music Appreciation just don’t go together, in my very humble and uneducated opinion.