Something a little out of the ordinary this week. A Live "Cine-Concert" from Paris featuring Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France performing the complete film score to the groundbreaking Russian silent film The New Babylon, composed by Dmitri Shostakovitch in 1929. The concert was recorded by Radio France Musique on October 9, 2010.

A suite from the film score has been making the rounds for some years, but not the entire score (which runs almost 2 hours) and its as groundbreaking as the film was which, incidentally was the first film score composed by Dmitri Shostakovitch.

For those of you interested in a synopsis of the film, it's here.

The concert is broken up into two parts, although there was no break in the concert/film itself. I waited for a quiet bit an hour or so into the concert and cut it.

Notes below as always. Announcements in French and movie in Russian, even though it's silent.

Cité de la Musique : Ciné-concert

Dmitri Chostakovitch (1906-1975)
La Nouvelle Babylone (URSS, 1928-1929) de Grigory Kozintsev et Leonid Trauberg

Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France
Frank Strobel, Direction
Concert donné le 9 octobre 2010.

Time to hunt down the DVD of this film.