Again Petrenko and his forces happily and successfully work with that abstraction, and not a particular political or local saw in mind. In fine Shostakovich's eloquence needed no words; this is a purely orchestral essay of barely 45 minutes consciously alternating slow and fast movements and sections (the second and fourth have three and four such internal alternations of tempo each). Though it never lacks energy or pulse. In fact, Petrenko in his notes emphasizes the fact that Shostakovich was probably lamenting that, although the War was over and "won" (the Ninth was completed in 1945), few things really changed for the Russian people. Early works these first three symphonies may be, but Petrenko has no doubt about the huge amount of musical substance which they contain. Again this is not to say that the teeth are drawn of the ferocity of the writing. By Richard Murison. The Twelfth Symphony, written almost five years later (1961), is also ostensibly named to recall events in the composer's country's history, "The Year 1917". 65, by Dmitri Shostakovich was written in the summer of 1943, and first performed on November 4 of that year by the USSR Symphony Orchestra under Yevgeny Mravinsky, to whom the work is dedicated.It was named the 'Stalingrad Symphony' by the USSR. Above all, there is a muscular reflection on the strange interaction between poignancy and the composer's well-digested sense of the horrors in the world in that period. For Russian composers esp., they are tops WRT performance. Indeed, Petrenko is particularly adept at probing beneath the surface. Ormandy’s RCA recordings of the last three Shostakovich symphonies were all excellent (they came in a box in the old days of LPs), but this was the best of all. And indeed, you will not be let down. The Thirteenth, "Babi Yar", was written in the next year. Best recording of Shostakovich 5 Hey all, I've been searching out a recording of Shostakovich 5 to buy. Not since Wagner has a composer’s reception history been so bitterly contested. Dmitry Shostakovich captured in … I'm now not too surprised when yet another superlative-sounding Telarc … Show more Indeed, in the early Second and Third Symphonies (all date from between 1925/25 and 1929), there is the passion, if not yet the "sear" which first emerged in the Fourth, so typical of a Shostakovich influenced (most notably in the Fifth) by the high Romanticism of Mahler. Definitely recommended.J. Dmitri Shostakovich’s last symphony, No. All Rights Reserved. Petrenko is aware that – perhaps like the suppressed joviality of the very last chamber works of Beethoven – Shostakovich had already seen past death. Elevated though you are by the end of 80 minutes of superb symphonic playing, Petrenko seems to be inviting you to wonder what's next. At the same time, a corner has been turned: the last three Symphonies are different. 15 a, Gennady Rozhdestvensky's 1983 rendition Shostakovich: Symphony No. Of the non-Russian cycles (consider Gergiev on the Mariinsky label for an all-Russian cycle), Petrenko's and the RLPO's must now be considered the reference set. Shostakovich’s son Maxim emerged as a distinguished interpreter of his father’s work, and his impressive account of the Fifth with the LSO stands at the opposite pole interpretatively from Mravinsky.The tempos are almost ineluctably … The only professional orchestra in the UK to have its own dedicated hall – the art deco Liverpool Philharmonic Hall – the RLPO played an important part when Liverpool was the European Capital of Culture in 2008. Gradations between tutti and smaller-scale passages are maintained and the music is heard at its distinct best. 20, Symphony #7 in C Major "Leningrad", Op. The five other recordings are by Ashkenazy (reviewed just this weekend in the daily listening column), Bernstein 1959, Alexander Rahbari, cond. Further, the players convey a dignity bordering on the detached – yet which is entirely appropriate because the phrasing, tempi and sense of structure are so assured and purposeful. © 1995-2020 Classical NetUse of text, images, or any other copyrightable material contained in these pages, without the written permission of the copyright holder,except as specified in the Copyright Notice, is strictly prohibited. But they start in the score and respect it to the utmost. 15, was written over three months in 1971 after a lifetime’s struggle to make music despite the machinations of Soviet politics. But never soullessly. Virgin Classics, VC 5 45145 2. Rather, that the fire is contextualized. It's the first to include singers again since the Third. Petrenko lets the orchestra tend towards the indeterminate (the "disentanglements" of the first movement allegretto [CD.2 tr.4] hint at playfulness, for instance). The music always seems to be traveling somewhere; if it weren's we would only be dealing with a static memorial. And lead to the final doleful passage when – perhaps somewhat unexpectedly: Petrenko hints as something more until the last – Shostakovich quietly, wistfully, regretfully, closes his account with the symphonic world. AAD. The dynamic, the shadowy, quiet passages of the Fourteenth ("The death of the poet" [CD.11 tr.10], for instance, which for Petrenko is almost operatic in scale) make this point well: as this movement slides almost without notice into the brief, pungent two dozen words of the "Conclusion" (of Rilke), the music as conscious artistic creation will last after external allusions or glosses have faded. We only really get back to this level of deep musical insight by Symphony No. 141 come close. Such detachment suits the music and its intentions very well. Shostakovich: Symphony No.11 in G minor, Op.103 ‘The Year 1905’ Building a Library explores recordings of Shostakovich's 11th Symphony in G minor. But what to make of the piece – or of Shostakovich himself? Focus is fine and finite in all the strings; the brass project sound, not wind; the section never sounds overblown. That is, most of the pickup was apparently from a single high pair of mikes, with spotlighting being used only occasionally and sparingly (footnote 1). The Boston symphony orchestra is currently recording a Shostakovich cycle under their new conductor Andris Nelsons for the DG label. He conceived a lot of the Fifteenth in hospital. Yes, Shostakovich wrote in the world – just as Mahler aimed to encapsulate the universe in his symphonies – but he used music to place music in the world, not to suggest references to the world. 14, Symphony #3 in E Flat Major "The First of May", Op. To be effective, the first movement of the "Leningrad" [CD.6 tr.1] can't be a mere crescendo depicting only resistance and survival – although clearly such determination is perhaps more central to this than any other of Shostakovich's symphonies. Petrenko considers it the composer's greatest work. In fact, his forces tether the well-integrated performance to the essence of Shostakovich's ambivalence. Petrenko and his players have a strong understanding of Shostakovich's symphonic structure; and that understanding os nowhere more starkly displayed than in their performances of both the Sixth and Seventh Symphonies. In the essay that accompanied the recording of Maxim Shostakovich - said to be the best performance of Shostakovich’s son on record but to my knowledge not available on CD - Shostakovich spoke of the first movement Adagietto as a “toy-shop with plenty of knick-knacks and trinkets – absolutely cheerful”. Bartók’s Four Pieces for Orchestra had practically no exposure on disc in 1969 when this recording was released, and they’ve had very little since. The music mixes pain with elation in Petrenko's conception. Alexander Vinogradov's bass is superb – his intonation, commitment and projection have just the right amount of detached sardonic scorn; yet are clear. They have the depth, integrity, balance, musicality, interpretative intelligence, technical aplomb and sheer love of Shostakovich's developing musical story to grant them that status. Check your Public Library (use search feature of your library's web site) ... We Ranked Them All. It's also the one where in a way he comes back to where he started from, writing for smaller or unusual ensembles like he did in the late 1920s and early 1930s. The recording was, I suspect, multimiked, but it was done more form the EMI than the CBS approach. The Orchestra's suitability to tackle the mammoth cycle of Shostakovich's 15 great symphonies is evident from the very first bar of their performance of the First Symphony. I have been wondering recently if we aren't seeing the beginning of the end of rotten recordings. Its performance thus adds weight to the otherwise often not fully-understood Ninth symphony. Typical of this insistence that instrumentation be pointed and honed, not contribute to an impressionistic blur, is the allegro non troppo section of the Fifth's first movement [CD.4 tr.1] nearly nine minutes in: at first hearing the combination of piano running under growling trombones and oboes with unstoppable tramping may seem crude. 15 in A Major, Op. Melodiya recordings have never been held in high regard in the US because of their cheap vinyl, gritty sound, and shrill high end, but I wonder now if the fault did not lie largely with the LP transfer and production, rather than the master tapes. 141 by Dmitri Shostakovich was his last. For me the Fourteenth Symphony is one of the most important pieces by Shostakovich. The Classical Net web site offers a comprehensive collection of information and news on classical music subjects including articles and CD reviews, composers and their music, the basic repertoire, recommended recordings and a CD buying guide. The Symphony No. Find out which are Shostakovich's best symphonies. In some ways, the RLPO's and Petrenko's Seventh sums up their approach at the half way point through the cycle: it has confidence; it has all the necessary technical prowess; majesty without undue pomp; it pays out the music in architectural splendor without losing either delicacy or the elegant beauty of the writing. This CD hasn't yet been officially released in the US (footnote 2), but it's well worth the effort to find a copy from the usual import houses. Maxim's 1972 recording of the 15th has not been surpassed, but Kurt Sanderling's 1978 recording with the Berliner Sinfonie-Orchester in what was then East Germany Sinfonie Nr. In the Fifth, too, the music is approached as music, not documentary. The Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Choir doesn't let the idea of declamation overrule their sense of the need for clean articulation and perhaps a bit of ironic restraint in both the third movement of the Second, "To October" [CD.2 tr.3] and the sixth movement of the Third, "The First of May" [CD.1 tr.10]. He's not trying to fit the music into a public (or personal) mold. Recordingwise, its spotty. This is not to say that he doesn't bring his own qualities to the works. This is not an unmusical brightness, just showy, and it does the music no disservice. Both Sir Henry Wood and Sir Thomas Beecham are closely associated with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, whose "principal", now "chief", conductor since 2006 has been Vasily Petrenko, who was born in Leningrad in 1976 and made his conducting debut with the RLPO two years earlier. It's particularly illuminating as a commentary on Shostakovich's musical and personal life, the symphonies, and the relationships between all three. Instruments (pizzicato strings, for instance) voice their concerns. It's one of the most poignant, energetic, elegiac and spiritual symphonies ever composed, and has some of the most glorious melodies ever penned. Rather it sounds as if the orchestra itself was rather on the brilliant side. Symphony #2 in B Major "To October", Op. The Ninth is paired with the Fifth on the fourth CD. Yet it is the playfulness of someone happy in their own nightmare. It's usually considered not "slight", but a response to the weight of other's (nineteenth century German) ninth symphonies. One might have reservations over the clarity, diction, and miking even, of the Huddersfield Choral Society and Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Choir here. The subtitle of Dvořák’s Symphony No. It's notorious for its extensive and unabashed use of musical quotation, most notably from the … They already have one disc out (#10) and it's very good. You are currently viewing our boards as a guest which gives you limited access to view most discussions and access our other features. 11 in G minor, Op. The performance reflects this: it's (correspondingly) more introverted, reflective, dour, slower, sadder. 15 … Best of all, however, are Evgeny Mravinsky and the Leningrad Philharmonic. Although its name is that of a provincial orchestra, the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra (RLPO) is actually the UK's longest-surviving professional orchestra. Three more great recordings. 4 in C minor, Op. These Symphonies are, of course, megaliths of the last century's orchestral repertoire. Not in this case. 1 & 2, Truls Mork, Cello, and Mariss Jansons leading the London Philharmonic. YouTube or Amazon samples (and reviews/comments on those pages as well as on various music/audio forums and blogs) can also help. Here grandeur is added… listen to the push of the march in the second ("Ninth of January") movement [CD.9 tr.2]. In their account of the Eighth and Tenth, the sinuous, reflective beauty of Shostakovich's orchestral writing is again to the fore. 103, Symphony #12 in D minor "The Year 1917", Op. There are lengthy passages of xylophone and strings in staccato marches, flute and woodwind dancing above divided strings, cymbals and timpani to introduce – not summarise – passages, unexpected crescendi, diminuendi and abrupt "about turns" in dynamic, rubato, and even "crude" refrains redolent of Mahler's inclusion of folk and street music acknowledging other trends of the 1930s. I have quite a few Melodiya CDs (and/or lossless rips made by others or from the local public libr.). At the risk of being redundant (again), I'd like to ask opinions on the best recordings of Shostakovich's symphonies, because I'm looking to expand my collection here, and when searching the forums for "best Shostakovich recordings," the search engine decided that the word "best" was too common and discarded it. So I decided to return to the subject for this column and finish the job. Much has been written, of course, about the extent to which actual historical events "appear" in the music… the Eleventh was written at the time of the Hungarian Uprising in 1956, for instance. JVC/Melodiya CD VDC-528 (CD). Browse: Shostakovich - Symphony No. I don't see anything good about such an end to our lives and this is what I'm trying to convey in this work." Shostakovich's final Symphony, the Fifteenth, dates from 1971, only a few years before his death. Even these performers' approach to it brings out Shostakovich's mildly and pleasantly perverse and playful dismissal of conventionalism. Most discussions and access our other features not wind ; the section never sounds overblown Rozhdestvensky conducting every respect our! Rotten recordings has garnered multiple accolades and can be safely recommended in every respect # 7 in Major... 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