Dmitri's Dacha

[eyeresist]

JLaurson recommended Barshai's recording of the 4th symphony in another thread, so I listened to it last night (I have the Brilliant box set). This is definitely one of the greats. In this admittedly meandering work, conductors too often let the music sound rote, but Barshai has obviously attended to every bar. I just wish I liked the sound of the recording a bit more....

[Mirror Image]

JLaurson recommended Barshai's recording of the 4th symphony in another thread, so I listened to it last night (I have the Brilliant box set). This is definitely one of the greats. In this admittedly meandering work, conductors too often let the music sound rote, but Barshai has obviously attended to every bar. I just wish I liked the sound of the recording a bit more....

For me, Rattle's 4th is still one of the best, but I hope a Petrenko performance is in the pipeline.

[jlaurson]

JLaurson recommended Barshai's recording of the 4th symphony in another thread...

I did so by way of actually, really, recommending Mariss Jansons, though. :-)
That one combines many of Barshai's lean, skeletal qualities with much of the wallop that, say, Bychkov.

[eyeresist]

I did so by way of actually, really, recommending Mariss Jansons, though. :-)

Really? I must have missed that bit. I found Barshai more involved and characterful than Jansons.

[jlaurson]

Heard the finest live DSCH 5th last week -- with the 90 year old (!) and totally limber Skrowaczewski  conducting the BRSO.
Put the already excellent Gergiev performances of 6, 7, 9, 10 from a couple days earlier in perspective, again.

How about the plethora of top-notch PC recordings over the last year!?!





DSCH
Piano Concertos
+ Piano Quintet
V.Jurowski / M.Helmchen
LPO
LPO
German link - UK link



DSCH
Piano Concertos
V. Fedoseyev / P. Gulda
Moscow RSO
Gramola
German link - UK link



DSCH
Piano Concertos
+ Shchedrin PC #5
D.Matsuev / V.Gergiev
Mariinsky Live
German link - UK link



DSCH
Piano Concertos
Alexander Toradze / Paavo Järvi
Frankfurt RSO
hr-music classic
German link - UK link

[Mirror Image]

Heard the finest live DSCH 5th last week -- with the 90 year old (!) and totally limber Skrowaczewski conducting the BRSO.

I own the Skrowaczewski recordings of Shosty's 1, 5, 6, and 10 with Halle Orchestra and they are all excellent performances. Much better than any of the Gergiev recordings I've heard.

[jlaurson]

I own the Skrowaczewski recordings of Shosty's 1, 5, 6, and 10 with Halle Orchestra and they are all excellent performances. Much better than any of the Gergiev recordings I've heard.

Absolutely fantastic recordings!


Ionarts-at-Large: The Admirable, Adorable Stanisław Skrowaczewski


http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2012/05/ionarts-at-large-admirable-adorable.html

When it rains, it pours. Raining Shostakovich in this case, not the most regularly performed composer in Munich, and now the fifth Symphony in as many days! And incidentally the Fifth Symphony this time – part of the regular Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra season with veteran conductor Polish Stanisław Skrowaczewski on the rostrum.

Stanisław Skrowaczewski is one of those fascinating cases of great, acknowledged, prize-winning, Pulitzer-nominated achievement that yet manages to remain underestimated. The one-time Nadia Boulanger student has worked with the perfectly underestimatable Hallé and Minnesota orchestras. He has recorded superb, but of course underestimated Shostakovich Symphonies (1 & 6, 5 & 10) with the former. And his is by far the best underrated Bruckner Symphony Cycle (with the Saarbrücken RSO on Oehms. Quote Skrowaczewski: "For me, Bruckner is one of the greatest composers, even though I cannot exactly say why." A man after my own heart!)...

[kishnevi]

Eyeresist asked for a debriefing after I gave a first listen to my trio of newly acquired Fourths.

To recap,  three different recordings of the Symphony No. 4 in c minor, Op. 43
--Scottish National Orchestra, N. Jarvi cond.
--Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, M. Jansons cond.
--City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, S. Rattle cond. (with Britten's Russian Funeral for brass and percussion as an add on)

I was least impressed by the Jarvi--did not sound as intense as the others. In part this seemed to be because of some less than first rate audio--the sound did not seem as clear as it does on the other two recordings.

Of the other two, I'm not sure which I prefer, although I'm inclined to give the nod to Jansons.  Rattle has what I think is a more intense first movement,  but Jansons a better third movement, and Rattle seems to give the very last bar a sort of odd hopeful chuckle whch doesn't really fit in well. 

I will, however, have to give both a few more listens before I can give a real opinion.  Nor am I yet prepared to say either one is noticeably better than the Gergiev, although it's been a little while since I've actually played that performance.  And I have yet to listen to the Barshai performance, so all this is definitely provisional. I can say, however, I like both the Rattle and the Jansons better than I do either of the Haitink recordings (in the Decca boxset and on CSO Resound--the one that won the Grammy), or the Rostropovich recording, which is the other performance I have of this symphony,.

[eyeresist]

Eyeresist asked for a debriefing after I gave a first listen to my trio of newly acquired Fourths.

Thanks for remembering   I think I'll listen to Barshai later today.

[Karl Henning]

Eyeresist asked for a debriefing after I gave a first listen to my trio of newly acquired Fourths.

To recap,  three different recordings of the Symphony No. 4 in c minor, Op. 43
--Scottish National Orchestra, N. Jarvi cond.
--Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, M. Jansons cond.
--City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, S. Rattle cond. (with Britten's Russian Funeral for brass and percussion as an add on)

I was least impressed by the Jarvi--did not sound as intense as the others. In part this seemed to be because of some less than first rate audio--the sound did not seem as clear as it does on the other two recordings.

Thanks for this, Jeffrey! I am still making my acquaintance with the Rattle, and (curiously) have yet to listen at all to the Jansons . . . but the Järvi truly is impossibly tubby of sound, partly a result of the over-reverberant space in which (what were they thinking?) they elected to record . . . .

[not edward]

Thanks for this, Jeffrey! I am still making my acquaintance with the Rattle, and (curiously) have yet to listen at all to the Jansons . . . but the Järvi truly is impossibly tubby of sound, partly a result of the over-reverberant space in which (what were they thinking?) they elected to record . . . .

Good question. I never liked the acoustics in the Glasgow City Hall--depending on where you sat different frequency ranges came through either dry or muddy. I suppose the Caird Hall in Dundee (which IIRC at the time was Chandos' recording venue of preference for the RSNO) may have been booked up.

I once went to a Nielsen's 5th under Vanska in Glasgow City Hall where the side-drummer was placed high above the orchestra in one of the boxes--I was told the reason for this was that otherwise the sound of the side drum simply couldn't cut through the orchestral wash in some parts of the hall.

[PaulR]

I have probably stated this before, either in this thread or in the other forum, but I just want to emphasize one of the aspects I really like in the Eight Symphony:  The delayed use of the percussion instruments in the first movement.

To me, the absence of the percussion instruments in the first ten minutes creates tension that is almost furthered by the snare drum when it enters.  It highlights the main climax of the movement, as there is also no percussion instruments past that use (or very limited). 

[Karl Henning]

I have probably stated this before, either in this thread or in the other forum, but I just want to emphasize one of the aspects I really like in the Eight Symphony:  The delayed use of the percussion instruments in the first movement.

Tangential to this: I really like how, in many of the symphonies, he starts out with ye olde string choir, both because he had such a talent for writing richly for the strings, and because as a result (as you observe here, Paul) part of the drama of the unfolding sonata design is, the entrance of other parts of the orchestra, like characters entering upon the stage.

And: Leningrad party at Bruce's! : )

[PaulR]

Tangential to this: I really like how, in many of the symphonies, he starts out with ye olde string choir, both because he had such a talent for writing richly for the strings, and because as a result (as you observe here, Paul) part of the drama of the unfolding sonata design is, the entrance of other parts of the orchestra, like characters entering upon the stage.

And: Leningrad party at Bruce's! : )

Not only strings in general, but how he also uses the low strings.  Thinking especially of the 10th symphony.  The atmosphere, along with the use of the higher strings in their lower positions with a more earthy sound, that it creates really sets up the clarinet when the instrument enters.  The clarinet has the perfect timbre for this opening of the movement (and throughout the piece).  I think it's the best opening statement he wrote, at least, in a symphony.
(Perhaps, I am a bit biased in saying that, as the 10th is my favorite symphony)

[Karl Henning]

There's nought wrong with the Tenth being your favorite symphony, lad! : )

[TheGSMoeller]

There's nought wrong with the Tenth being your favorite symphony, lad! : )

+10 

[Karl Henning]

I do find myself thinking continually better of the Eleventh; it helped, chancing to catch a bit of a live broadcast yesterday of the Houston Symphony playing it at Carnegie Hall under the baton of Hans Graf.

[TheGSMoeller]

I do find myself thinking continually better of the Eleventh; it helped, chancing to catch a bit of a live broadcast yesterday of the Houston Symphony playing it at Carnegie Hall under the baton of Hans Graf.

Them Houstonians have a good band.
Was this performance on the radio?

[Karl Henning]

It was, and Bruce corrected me:  the actual concert was something like a month ago.

[TheGSMoeller]

It was, and Bruce corrected me:  the actual concert was something like a month ago.

Very cool, thanks, Karl!