Dmitri's Dacha

[aukhawk]

Preludes & Fugues?  Top, top, desert island Dmitri.

Can I recommend Jenny Lin (Hanssler) or Tatiana Nikolayeva (Hyperion).  The Nikolayeva set also has an exceptionally informative booklet, worth downloading even if you prefer some other recording.

[Madiel]

I have Nikolayeva. So the booklet is mine.

Looking at Ashkenazy and Melnikov. But now I might have to add Lin to the options as I can see there are glowing reviews in various places.

[aukhawk]

Lin is a rather modernist take - steely-fingered, percussive, but very well recorded.  Pretty much the opposite end of the spectrum from Nikolayeva.

The Nikolayeva Hyperion set was actually the first CD(s) I ever bought - to celebrate my first investment in a CD player, with a collection of several hundred LPs on my shelves.  Turned out to be a great choice!

[Karl Henning]

Happy to bespeak both Ashkenazy and Melnikov, neither of whom is displaced by whichever Nikolayeva recording I have.

[Madiel]

Sampling has led to the following thoughts:

Ashkenazy, which I'd previously pencilled as the one to get (over Scherbakov and I'm not sure if anyone else was considered at that stage), is good but... there's not as much engagement or character as I'd like. I think it's perhaps down to the recording, which is late 90s and (at least from online sampling on a couple of platforms) doesn't have the immediacy of some more recent ones.

Lin definitely benefits from a bright, modern recording and she sounds good, and really good in pieces that benefit from a light and crisp approach. The only places where I wasn't terribly convinced were 2 of the most technically fugues, the G sharp minor and D flat major, she seemed rather cautious in those cases (noting I'm used to Nikolayeva-Hyperion where those are among the rare places she goes for it).

Right now I'm thinking that Melnikov is the one I'm going to go for just ahead of Lin. Why? Because he just has an enormous amount of colour. The contrast he has between some pieces is spectacular. He definitely has a more "Romantic" attitude to the music than Lin, and perhaps that's more similar to the Nikolayeva-Hyperion I'm used to (though his tempi in most of the slower fugues are faster than Nikolayeva's efforts, which can border on sleepwalking). He gives a lot of shape to the music and I think that, if I listen to the entire opus (as I would prefer to do), that's going to matter.

Of course, I could go nuts and get both Lin and Melnikov, though even expanding from 1 set to 2 is not common for me...

I dunno. I may listen to those 2 in full to see what I respond to.

[Madiel]

And I should add, going through each of these sets this evening using iTunes "preview all" to touch upon all 48 movements has just been a reminder of what an utterly superb work op.87 is.

[Karl Henning]

And I should add, going through each of these sets this evening using iTunes "preview all" to touch upon all 48 movements has just been a reminder of what an utterly superb work op.87 is.

Undeniable.

[Madiel]

Listening to the whole of Ashkenazy's version today, and of course I can find almost nothing wrong with it and plenty that is very right.

Vague plans to stream Lin tomorrow and Melnikov the day after...

[Andy D.]

And I should add, going through each of these sets this evening using iTunes "preview all" to touch upon all 48 movements has just been a reminder of what an utterly superb work op.87 is.

That's a piece I haven't check out, looking forward now!

I checked out the Petrenko recording of the 8th...I was disappointed by the 1st movement, which for a relatively recent recording just didn't have the bite it should have (I should mention that the lower range of dynamics on this recording are done at times exceedingly well, perhaps the best I've heard out of Barshai, Petrenko, and Mvravinsky). The second mvt. is done the best I've ever heard, and the rest is good (if, again, bizarrely flat for a recording from this century).

The Mravinsky still trumps them all, imo...though I have so many other recordings I've still yet to enjoy of this remarkable symphony

[aukhawk]

I checked out the Petrenko recording of the 8th...I was disappointed by the 1st movement, which for a relatively recent recording just didn't have the bite it should have ...

You put it very well and that is a problem I have with the Petrenko recordings generally - they are of course excellent modern wide-ranging sound any way you want to measure it, but somehow a bit lacking in involvement, a bit too polite, maybe just a bit too much the concert-hall experience. 
I think Shostakovich benefits from something more visceral, be it the raw edges of the classic soviet-era Melodiya recordings - or the view-from-the-podium in-your-face sound of the very good Caetani cycle (Arts label, live) - or the dissected and anatomised sonic splendour that BIS provide for Wigglesworth.

[Andy D.]

You put it very well and that is a problem I have with the Petrenko recordings generally - they are of course excellent modern wide-ranging sound any way you want to measure it, but somehow a bit lacking in involvement, a bit too polite, maybe just a bit too much the concert-hall experience. 
I think Shostakovich benefits from something more visceral, be it the raw edges of the classic soviet-era Melodiya recordings - or the view-from-the-podium in-your-face sound of the very good Caetani cycle (Arts label, live) - or the dissected and anatomised sonic splendour that BIS provide for Wigglesworth.

I think you put that better than I did, my friend. And THANKS for the reccomendations! I'll probably have about eight or ten recordings of the 8th, 10th, 7th, and 11th because I already love them so much.

I do feel that Petrenko's renderings of the 10th and 11th are excellent...his 5th falls prey to exactly what you were talking about above. To me the 5th's 1st mvt. was meant to be both intense and somewhat dire sounding. All I got was a flatness from the Petrenko.

[Madiel]

That's a piece I haven't check out, looking forward now!

Op.87 is an excellent way to spend a spare 2.5 hours (not that it's common to actually have the capacity to listen to the entire thing in one go).

[Madiel]

maybe just a bit too much the concert-hall experience. 

I feel a need to clarify this. Is this a complaint that a studio recording is too much like what you would hear live?

If so I honestly think that might be a complaint I've never heard before.

[Andy D.]

I've got my eyes on the Jarvi 7th Symphony, due to its reputation as being pretty darn intense.

[relm1]

I've got my eyes on the Jarvi 7th Symphony, due to its reputation as being pretty darn intense.

My favorite No. 7 is Bernstein's/CSO.

[aukhawk]

The 7th?  I recommend this Currentzis concert while it's still available on the SWR SO site:
https://www.swr.de/swrclassic/symphonieorchester/Teodor-Currentzis-dirigiert-Schostakowitschs-Siebte,av-o1133219-100.html
though I think it will remain on YouTube as well.

[aukhawk]

maybe just a bit too much the concert-hall experience. 

I feel a need to clarify this. Is this a complaint that a studio recording is too much like what you would hear live?
If so I honestly think that might be a complaint I've never heard before.

A problem with the concert-hall experience (one of several) is that it is a 'polite' environment.  I think some music can be heard to greater advantage outside of that cocoon - even if, admittedly, that would not be what the composer had in mind (he might have hoped for a riotous premiere a la Stravinsky).

Folks, whilst recommending our way through the best of Dmitri's output, please don't overlook the First Violin Concerto (1948, but supressed for several years) and the First Cello Concerto (1959).  As orchestral music goes, I think these are a match for the best of his symphonies.  Performances by the dedicatee in each case (Oistrakh and Rostropovich respectively) are mandatory although in Oistrakh's case I don't know of any in good modern sound.  For a modern recording of the VC Tetzlaff is good, or Vengerov.

A YouTube of Oistrakh and VC1 from 1967 - this is fantastic viewing, from about 21:30 for 15 minutes or so is intense! 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qYQiXHqFi20

[Andy D.]

The 7th?  I recommend this Currentzis concert while it's still available on the SWR SO site:
https://www.swr.de/swrclassic/symphonieorchester/Teodor-Currentzis-dirigiert-Schostakowitschs-Siebte,av-o1133219-100.html
though I think it will remain on YouTube as well.

Big fan of Currentzis' Tchaikovsky 6th.

[bhodges]

The 7th?  I recommend this Currentzis concert while it's still available on the SWR SO site:
https://www.swr.de/swrclassic/symphonieorchester/Teodor-Currentzis-dirigiert-Schostakowitschs-Siebte,av-o1133219-100.html
though I think it will remain on YouTube as well.

Thanks so much for posting this! I have not yet Currentzis (in anything) and this will make a fine introduction. Also, I am always on the lookout for good sites with archived concerts, and did not realize this orchestra had any on its website. (We really do live in a golden age for music accessibility -- the sheer quantity online is overwhelming.)

--Bruce

[Madiel]

Today I've been listening to Jenny Lin in the 24 Preludes & Fugues.

I haven't finished the whole thing yet, but damn there is some nice playing here.