Romancing the Gadfly

"I try to make my music speak simply and directly that which is in my heart at the time I am composing. If there is love there, or bitterness, or sadness, or religion, these moods become part of my music, and it becomes either beautiful or bitter or sad or religious." --Sergei Rachmaninoff (1873-1943)

At the risk of incurring the wrath and indignation from others, my unlearned thought on the great Russian classical composers is that their music is inherently beautiful yet pensive. If there be bubbling gaiety and insouciance in the compositions, the melodic strains are tethered to some shadowy melancholic emotions.

Today is Dmitri Shostakovich's birthday. He'd written a most contemplative score for the 1955 film, The Gadfly.

Janine Jansen, violin (2003)
Romance (The Gadfly Suite, Op. 97a)
Film Score: The Gadfly (1955)
Dmitri Shostakovich
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