Soviet music thread

You are mixing up post-modern with modern. Soviet art was modern.

Not the same person but I have a couple of thoughts. There's a school of philosophy devoted to this question. I only remember a little bit.

One of the things we consider is the skill that went into the art itself. Was the artist skilled at the particular craft? Things like time invested, education, prior investment into their craft, attention to detail, use of color, form and anatomy, etc.

In a broader example, reflect back on something that you know a lot about. You can point out what is good and bad, and what you have a subjective taste on. There's always subjectivity. However, if you bring in a group of fellow experts on the subject you will generally agree what is good and bad with the group. Art isn't purely subjective as humans, we have some tastes that are either inherent or developed through exposure to a variety of subjects within the same category (hearing a lot of bands in the same genre).

Rostropovich (soviet cellist) playlist: youtube.com/watch?v=S85T_98K2VM&list=PLoNqS6OJ5iuXG6foNmJVoAa4AWEog9qlw

Rostropovich: Cellist of the Century (interviews with Gergiev, Penderecki and more): youtube.com/watch?v=JL5Yq0yXH-c

Great jazz albums uploaded on this Youtube channel: youtube.com/user/mishapanfilov/videos

Wow, thanks.

Bloody hell, I was looking for this exact record 2 years ago: youtube.com/watch?v=fkM1KLb_Ngs

...

God damn, these are gr8
youtube.com/watch?v=1b4CbrRkUis

Yevgeny Mravinsky, one of the greatest conductors of the 20th century: youtube.com/watch?v=mlDFdo3BXvo

[German subtitles, Russian spoken:] Mravinsky, the conductor youtube.com/watch?v=-TqP_-Ombr4

Sviatoslav Richter, arguably the greatest pianist of the 20th century.
Documentary [English subtitles, mixed spoken]: youtube.com/watch?v=yfJVpjI3wJM

Richter playing Shostakovich's 4 Preludes & Fugues: youtube.com/watch?v=KlPC9CNsafU

youtube.com/watch?v=7E61b_X5Fl4

Who the fuck is Leshchenko?

Lev Leshchenko, one of the most famous singers in the USSR? Have you never heard "Den Pobedy"?

Hans Werner Henze's double bass concerto. Commie german composer. It's pretty great if you like atonal stuff.

youtube.com/watch?v=ehcCCkQtyIY

Schostakovich Piano Quintet

youtube.com/watch?v=UEPiqK-jqTc

fuck that opera is epic

Art is just like politics, the best art rests on a foundation of solid theory.

A E S T H E T I C

Thanks for all this beautiful Soviet music comrades

Now I have.

Prokofiev is pure epic.

Thanks, will check him out.

It's not an opera, it's a cantata. Here's recent rendition (with the subtitles as well) of the full work.

youtube.com/watch?v=7r1adsrxz5c

Prokofiev is known for his eccentric changing of epic/bombastic parts into smooth/warm parts. You surely know of this piece: youtu.be/_JME3Vq5AWg?t=373

The anarcho nazbol underground punk dissidents made the best music though.

youtube.com/watch?v=DDCDsKHCE8s

youtube.com/watch?v=nd6U26XSdG0

Smells like teenage rebellion, tbh. I'd love to catch up with these "fuck everything" kind of punks after the regime change to see how they liked the US planned economic "shock therapy," the skyrocketing unemployment, rampant privatization, cutbacks on social benefits and so on.

Letov actually went full nazbol after the fall of the USSR, he later distanced himself from the NBP, though he remained a dissident to the end. Dude was a pretty serious anarchist, was even sent to a mental institution by the authorities back in the 80s and could only release his work through clandestine tapes. The last years of the USSR were pretty fucking bleak anyway you look at them. Being sent down to Afghanistan and getting PTSD doesn't sound like a pleasant experience. It's really hard trusting in the superior rationality *tips fedora* of the vanguard party when the world around you is obviously falling appart.
youtube.com/watch?v=RKiRQ3Q7P4Y

youtube.com/watch?v=oCSNa38MQrI

By the 80's you could hardly call the party a vanguard in any meaningful sense. The nomenclature actively worked to empty out the party from any kind of radicalism.