Dmitri's Dacha

[Karl Henning]

Well, and now I am curious (a) to hear the Masur-led Thirteenth (thanks especially to Miró's Sock Monkey Greg) and (b) to revisit the Slava/NSO Thirteenth, which I am sure was the first I heard the entire piece, long ago . . . .

[Brian]

the Volkov Finale: it's pure torture, grinning through the agony, and not everyone is going to respond to it positively. (It's the opposite of Lenny's triumphalism.) Some younger conductor's play it the same way now, so Slava has been influential.

Haven't heard Slava, but I know this from the agonizing Kreizberg/RNO on PentaTone.

[Mirror Image]

You're probably right, since i have a low opinion of most of Slava's DSCH recordings... especially the symphonies. He wasn't a good conductor and he didn't have a good orchestra and he used DSCH to further his conducting career.

I don't know if he used Shostakovich to further his conducting career, because that's just speculation on your part, but I know Rostropovich wasn't a great conductor, but, and this is a very big BUT , he does have a way of communicating to the orchestral musicians exactly what he wants out of the performance or else he wouldn't have yielded such good results. He may not have the finesse of a Haitink or MTT but he did well with the minimal amount of baton technique he had.

[Mirror Image]

Well, and now I am curious (a) to hear the Masur-led Thirteenth (thanks especially to Miró's Sock Monkey Greg) and (b) to revisit the Slava/NSO Thirteenth, which I am sure was the first I heard the entire piece, long ago . . . .

I bought the Masur 7th and 13th, so I'm really anxious to hear them. I heard both were great performances. I've come to really enjoy the 13th. I'm still wrapping my mind around the 14th.

[Mirror Image]

I've just got to give Bernstein a shout out for his performance of Symphony No. 7 "Leningrad". It might be a little self-indulgent, but I've never heard this symphony sound better. This performance really has some weight and that Adagio was just handled with dare I say perfection. This has to be my favorite 7th now. I've listened to this years ago, back when I wasn't particularly fond of Shostakovich, and it didn't make much of an impression, but now I really enjoy it. This performance is one of those situations where ignorance took over and kept me from enjoying the music.

[Mirror Image]

The only time (thus far) that I've heard the Op.77 live, it was Repin, Masur, and our band here in Boston. Dynamite!

I may have to fly up to Boston just so I can slap you in the face with a dead fish for this one, Karl. I'm SO jealous!!!

[jlaurson]

Not the best conductor of not the best orchestra is inarguable (and something which we might observe of the Barshai set, meseems).

Oh, Orchestra aside (and the WDR SO is a very, very considerably better orchestra than the NSO, esp. in those years) but Barshai and Slava are not even remotely in the same league as far as their conducting skills are concerned. Barshai was actually a capable conductor, Rostropovich was always a great cellist.

[TheGSMoeller]

Just curious, are we discussing Rostropovich's physical conducting style? As in how he looked when he conducted? Or his interpretation of the music and communication with the orchestra he was conducting?

[jlaurson]

Just curious, are we discussing Rostropovich's physical conducting style? As in how he looked when he conducted? Or his interpretation of the music and communication with the orchestra he was conducting?

from the WETA column, which seemingly has received its final death blow:

If these are my favorite recordings with the cellist Rostropovich, there are some that are worth noting where he conducts. His undeniable understanding of the music was, when coupled with outstanding collaborators, enough to overcome his limitations as a conductor. His recordings with Maxim Vengerov and the London Symphony Orchestra of the Prokofiev and Shostakovich Violin Concertos (one of each on two Telarc CDs – lest you find the European Warner/Apex re-issue with the two Shostakovich concertos extracted unto one disc) are superb for either composer – and despite ever-stiffening competition in the Shostakovich (last year alone I've heard excellent new recordings of Daniel Hope, Leila Josefowicz, Arabella Steinbacher, and Sergey Khachatryan) they are still the recordings to judge all others against.


Prokofiev/Rachmaninov PCs #3 (SACD)
Another double-Russian/Russian combination is very appealing: Prokofiev/Rachmaninov with Rostropovich/Pletnev. Piano Concertos No.3 of both composers make as compelling a combination as an odd one – and the excellent playing, filled with excitement and delightful accents and exclamation marks, all in stunning sound from DG, make this a most worthy traversal of both concertos, even if you already have them in other versions.


DSCH: Sy. #8 (SACD)
Of his Shostakovich symphonies (the complete set – largely with the NSO – is available on Teldec), I cannot recommend many when there is always an interpretation that I'd much rather hear. The early recordings are uneven, lacking in the necessary tension, and are often let down by the NSO's lack of will or ability. Any complete set I know is preferable, be it Jansons (EMI), Barshai (Brilliant), Kitajenko (Capriccio), Kondrashin (Aulos/Melodiya) or Haitkink (Decca). The LSO recordings on the orchestras' own label are better, by-and-large, but hugely overrated. His Eighth on that label, though, is a worthy contender. Slowness in that symphony is no detriment to the grim and stark atmosphere and I rate his account above Gergiev (Philips) and Wiggelsworth (BIS), alongside Barshai and Kitajenko and only marginally behind Jansons.


DSCH: Lady Macbeth
If Rostropovich had recorded nothing but Shostakovich's Lady Macbeth of the Mtensk District, he'd have done the world of music – and the composer – a service enough to forget all the gratuitous boasting I've griped about before. With his wife, Galina Vishnevskaya as Katerina Izmailova, this is the recording that put the opera firmly back on the map (though still not firmly enough for the masterpiece it is) and it is the only recording you need to think of acquiring, if you are looking for Audio-only, at least. Any and all of these recordings serve his memory in the best possible way.

[TheGSMoeller]

Thanks for posting, Jens. 

The Britten cello suite disc is a mighty fine one, I'm also partial to his Cello-Symphony recording.

[Karl Henning]

I bought the Masur 7th and 13th, so I'm really anxious to hear them. I heard both were great performances. I've come to really enjoy the 13th. I'm still wrapping my mind around the 14th.

As a composer, I am useless as a guide for the general listening public . . . but the Fourteenth grabbed right from the start.

[TheGSMoeller]

As a composer, I am useless as a guide for the general listening public . . . but the Fourteenth grabbed right from the start.

The 14th and 15th struck me on first listens more than any other DSCH symphony. I've had the pleasure of seeing the 15th performed live which was quite an experience, would love to see no14.

[Karl Henning]

from the WETA column, which seemingly has received its final death blow:

And I'll thank you, too. This recording of the Fourth, now . . . I shall agree that it largely lacks tension, and that this lack may be a significant part of why (as I think it must have been the first I heard of the symphony) I came away from this initially, not thinking all that much of the music. Yet now, much better familiar with the symphony as I am, that reduction in tensile pressure here and there I am finding considered and musical — by no means The Way it must be done (any more than I should cast such a judgement for Lenny's extraordinary Leningrad with Chicago), but I shy away from dismissing the result as weakness at the podium.

[Karl Henning]

And (FWIW) I find Slava's Fourth thoughtfully weighed, bar by bar, as opposed to Gergiev's (which, at the time when I listened to it, I should have been inclined to like), which I found wilful and capricious.

[Karl Henning]

And (FWIW) I find Slava's Fourth thoughtfully weighed, bar by bar [....]

Returning to it now, I think that my long-ago problem with the CD must not have lain in Slava or the NSO, but in the environment (audio & otherwise) when I first heard it.  Again, I should really take an hour to draw up a couple of paragraphs.  And will do, after giving it a third post-reunion listen.

[Karl Henning]

Well, this must be the first day I've ever listened to the Opus 43 four times the same day. Guess I'm a phan-boy.

[Mirror Image]

I think Rostropovich is just fine in Shostakovich's music. The man knew Shostakovich so who better than somebody who was friends with him conduct his music? I may share an outsider's opinion in this regard, but I can't help but admire the man and what he's done whether on the podium, onstage with cello in hand, or away from the lighted stage.

[jlaurson]

I think Rostropovich is just fine in Shostakovich's music. The man knew Shostakovich so who better than somebody who was friends with him conduct his music? I may share an outsider's opinion in this regard, but I can't help but admire the man and what he's done whether on the podium, onstage with cello in hand, or away from the lighted stage.

I'm friends with a few composers. You can bet they don't want me to conduct their work.  (But I know what you mean, obviously.)

[Mirror Image]

I'm friends with a few composers. You can bet they don't want me to conduct their work.  (But I know what you mean, obviously.)

[Mirror Image]

Quite a good performance of the 5th with Bychkov conducting the Cologne Radio Symphony Orchestra:

http://www.youtube.com/v/RGjb8ygLBhc&feature=related