Dmitri's Dacha

[Roasted Swan]

Any view on this set?
I have No.11 '1905' which I thought was an excellent performance.


I'm interested in this recent Dutton double album (symphonies 5 and 15 plus Kodaly's 'Hary Janos') as well:

I like this Kitajenko set.  In any repertoire he is almost never "driven" - he seems to prefer a broader, weightier approach.  As with any composer this will chime better with some works than others.  The SACD sound is good and the Gurzenich Orchestra very fine.  I'm glad to have it in my collection but I wouldn't choose it as the one set above any other.

The Ormandy recordings I only know from their CBS/Sony original CD releases.  I have heard other releases in this Dutton series and the improvement in sound quality over the original/early CD's is marked.  Quite why they have chosen the recordings/repertoire they have is not explained and how they have remastered the quadrophonic sound is not touched upon in the liners. 

I must admit to not having heard these performances in some time but my memory is a rather run of the mill No.5 but a more impressive no.15

[Karl Henning]

Any view on this set?
I have No.11 '1905' which I thought was an excellent performance.


I'm interested in this recent Dutton double album (symphonies 5 and 15 plus Kodaly's 'Hary Janos') as well:

I like the Kitajenko set: It's the set I have on my phone (No, I don't play it from the phone's speaker) 


Recommend it!

[vandermolen]

I like this Kitajenko set.  In any repertoire he is almost never "driven" - he seems to prefer a broader, weightier approach.  As with any composer this will chime better with some works than others.  The SACD sound is good and the Gurzenich Orchestra very fine.  I'm glad to have it in my collection but I wouldn't choose it as the one set above any other.

The Ormandy recordings I only know from their CBS/Sony original CD releases.  I have heard other releases in this Dutton series and the improvement in sound quality over the original/early CD's is marked.  Quite why they have chosen the recordings/repertoire they have is not explained and how they have remastered the quadrophonic sound is not touched upon in the liners. 

I must admit to not having heard these performances in some time but my memory is a rather run of the mill No.5 but a more impressive no.15

Many thanks RS. For now I've ordered the Dutton and will report back in due course. As I've only recently obtained the Petrenko set I don't think that I can justify getting the Kitajenko at the moment but maybe in the future.

[vandermolen]

I like the Kitajenko set: It's the set I have on my phone (No, I don't play it from the phone's speaker) 


Recommend it!

Many thanks Karl.
I certainly enjoyed his recording of Symphony 11.

[vandermolen]

A very strong recommendation for this double CD set. I've written about it on the WAYLT thread:

[Herman]

What's Tom Selleck doing on a DSCH record sleeve? And who's his girlfriend?

[Madiel]

I was sorely tempted to submit it to the bad artwork thread.

[vandermolen]

What's Tom Selleck doing on a DSCH record sleeve? And who's his girlfriend?

:-)
Oh, I quite like the garish Socialist Realist covers.

[Roasted Swan]

What's Tom Selleck doing on a DSCH record sleeve? And who's his girlfriend?

ha ha!!

[relm1]

Who needs a new No. 11 "1905"?  You do.  This sounds quite nice from the clips.

https://www.chandos.net/products/catalogue/CHAN%205278

[Maestro267]

Oof! Look at those timings! At 66:43, by far the longest Shostakovich 11 I've come across! I suspect that means the violent music at the climax of the second movement will be played in slow motion again. That music absolutely must be given with gusto. It can be as loud as it wants, but the severity of it is really hammered home when it's done at a fast pace. It's supposed to be a real-time, graphic depiction of the violent suppression of protestors.

[Roasted Swan]

Oof! Look at those timings! At 66:43, by far the longest Shostakovich 11 I've come across! I suspect that means the violent music at the climax of the second movement will be played in slow motion again. That music absolutely must be given with gusto. It can be as loud as it wants, but the severity of it is really hammered home when it's done at a fast pace. It's supposed to be a real-time, graphic depiction of the violent suppression of protestors.

The excerpts on the Chandos website sound well played - but the 1st movement alone is a full 5:10 LONGER than Kondrashin.  I agree with your characterisation above.  The BBC PO are an excellent orchestra without doubt but this is work that seems to reveal most when played with the fury and rage of the old Soviet ensembles and conductors.......

Of course - Rostropovich's famous/infamous LSO "Live" recording IS slower in every movement:

                          I                  II             III            IV
Rostropovich      20:09          21:26       13:27       17:20
Storgards          17:40          21:03       12:16       15:44

The Rostropovich would NOT be my No.1 - I'd probably stick with Kondrashin - but to be fair he does generate an extraordinary sense of tension and chill.........

[vandermolen]

Who needs a new No. 11 "1905"?  You do.  This sounds quite nice from the clips.

https://www.chandos.net/products/catalogue/CHAN%205278

Looks like a very interesting release - more temptation 

[aukhawk]

The excerpts on the Chandos website sound well played - but the 1st movement alone is a full 5:10 LONGER than Kondrashin.  I agree with your characterisation above. 

Say rather that Kondrashin is quicker than anyone else.  I was quite shocked when I listened to his recording for the first time quite recently, it felt rushed and dismissive.  66 mins does not seem an excessive duration to me.  But I don't need another 11th.

[Augustus]

The fastest 11th on disc is probably the 1965 recording by Konstantin Ivanov with the USSR State SO.  The movement timings are: I - 11'11"; II - 14'43"; III - 9'09"; IV - 12'26", all over in under 48 minutes, more than six minutes faster than the Kondrashin.  A very different reading to most others, but one which I find quite compelling.

It is now, I think, only commercially available in the excellently-remastered Melodiya 110th Anniversary box of the symphonies under various conductors, Barshai (14), Ivanov (11), Kondrashin (2,3,4,12,13), Mravinsky (6,8), Rozhdestvensky (1,9), Svetlanov (5,7), Temirkanov (10) and M. Shostakovich (15).  The Maxim Shostakovich 15th has been quite a rarity on CD over the years and it is good to have it in this set in fine sound at last.

If anyone is interested, the Ivanov 11th may still be on YouTube in a bad transfer, which is where I first encountered it.

[Roasted Swan]

Say rather that Kondrashin is quicker than anyone else.  I was quite shocked when I listened to his recording for the first time quite recently, it felt rushed and dismissive.  66 mins does not seem an excessive duration to me.  But I don't need another 11th.

Fair enough but since - for me - Kondrashin is the reference than it is more valid to say how other performances differ from Kondrashin not the other way around.......!

[staxomega]

The fastest 11th on disc is probably the 1965 recording by Konstantin Ivanov with the USSR State SO.  The movement timings are: I - 11'11"; II - 14'43"; III - 9'09"; IV - 12'26", all over in under 48 minutes, more than six minutes faster than the Kondrashin.  A very different reading to most others, but one which I find quite compelling.

It is now, I think, only commercially available in the excellently-remastered Melodiya 110th Anniversary box of the symphonies under various conductors, Barshai (14), Ivanov (11), Kondrashin (2,3,4,12,13), Mravinsky (6,8), Rozhdestvensky (1,9), Svetlanov (5,7), Temirkanov (10) and M. Shostakovich (15).  The Maxim Shostakovich 15th has been quite a rarity on CD over the years and it is good to have it in this set in fine sound at last.

If anyone is interested, the Ivanov 11th may still be on YouTube in a bad transfer, which is where I first encountered it.

I just can't imagine the first movement being played that briskly, seems like it would be robbed of all the atmosphere before building up to the climax, but I'll give it a listen. All this discussion of the 11th had me revisit Rozhdestvensky's masterful recording yesterday.

[Karl Henning]

I just can't imagine the first movement being played that briskly, seems like it would be robbed of all the atmosphere before building up to the climax, but I'll give it a listen. All this discussion of the 11th had me revisit Rozhdestvensky's masterful recording yesterday.

And I've listened again to the composer's son's recording.

[relm1]

And I've listened again to the composer's son's recording.

How is that one?  Was the orchestra Prague?  You know what just hit me, there are very few composers where there is something to be gleamed about their work by revisiting other interpretations of it rather than what we consider the strongest interpretation. 

[Karl Henning]

How is that one?  Was the orchestra Prague?  You know what just hit me, there are very few composers where there is something to be gleamed about their work by revisiting other interpretations of it rather than what we consider the strongest interpretation. 

The Prague Symphony, yes.  I like it a lot.  The elegiac Cor anglais near the end of the fourth movement is so heart-searingly tender, it feels that the entire symphony was shaped to foc us there;  of course there is then a whirlwind to close.