Recommendation for Shostakovich 5th Symphony?

[Heck148]

I'm working my way through the Barshai box set, and I have just enjoyed the 5th Symphony! This is really one of my favourite Shostakovich symphonies, and know I wonder which are your preferred performances of this symphony?

Bernstein/NYPO/1959, recorded @ Boston Symphony Hall, after European/Russian tour....White hot, classic rendition....finale is ripping fast, and it really works...orchestra sounds fabulous.

[Daverz]

Indeed. Just finished it. Terrific.

It only took 2 years.

It does remind me about the Silvestri recording.  Others I'd recommend are the Sanderling in his partial cycle and the new Nelsons in spectacular sound.

[asin]B000025R32[/asin][asin]B01BIH5U1W[/asin]

[GioCar]

The Caetani with my home orchestra is very good indeed.
Paired with a great performance of the 6th

[asin]B00009LW4Z[/asin]

Here is the ClassicsToday review
http://www.classicstoday.com/review/review-9623/?search=1

[david johnson]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3OUNlac-oJg

[PerfectWagnerite]

Bernstein/NYPO/1959, recorded @ Boston Symphony Hall, after European/Russian tour....White hot, classic rendition....finale is ripping fast, and it really works...orchestra sounds fabulous.

Is that this one? It says 1959/1973 on the back cover.

[relm1]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3OUNlac-oJg

That was a very interesting interpretation and predates the suspicious western/Testimony interpretation.   I enjoyed hearing this interpretation but I probably feel the Maxim Shostakovich/LSO/Collins is the closest to accurate.  This is a Mahleresque slow symphony full of intensity and pathos rather than brisk energy.

[Heck148]

Is that this one? It says 1959/1973 on the back cover.

I think so - I have the "Great Performances" CBS issue. 10/59 is the recording date for #5.

[PerfectWagnerite]

I also like this one as it is beautifully played and the engineering is great also:



It is the companion cd to this book:

[Ken B]

It appears every single recording of this has its boosters!

[PerfectWagnerite]

It appears every single recording of this has its boosters!

And why not? I don't think I have run across a bad recording of this piece. Somehow it brings out the best in an orchestra.

[vandermolen]

The Caetani with my home orchestra is very good indeed.
Paired with a great performance of the 6th

[asin]B00009LW4Z[/asin]

Here is the ClassicsToday review
http://www.classicstoday.com/review/review-9623/?search=1

I have the recording of Symphony 4 in this cycle - it is excellent, so this looks like an interesting release.

[vandermolen]

I also like this one as it is beautifully played and the engineering is great also:



It is the companion cd to this book:

I have the book and have never played the accompanying CD. So this is good to know!

[vandermolen]

I've just listened again to the Mravinsky 1938 recording (presumably the premiere recording) with the Leningrad Philharmonic Orchestra. Still in a class of its own as far as I'm concerned and no other performance comes close to it. Considering that it was recorded in the midst of the Stalinist purges and not long before World War Two I don't think that it is reading too much into it to suggest that it conveys, unique amongst recordings of Shostakovich's Fifth Symphony, a sense of looming catastrophe which links it to the sound world of Symphony 4. Forget about the old recording - this really is the greatest (IMHO) recorded performance of Symphony No.5.

[Karl Henning]

You see, I find that ("a sense of looming catastrophe") a little problematic to reconcile with the fact that Shostakovich needed to provide a fundamentally upbeat piece in order to restore himself to official grace, and that the emotional, sustained ovation at the work's première affirmed a consensus that the symphony was "a good answer" in response to the bureaucratic provocation.

My argument at heart is, if the d minor symphony had been dissident music, it would probably have been the composer's last symphony.

[vandermolen]

You see, I find that ("a sense of looming catastrophe") a little problematic to reconcile with the fact that Shostakovich needed to provide a fundamentally upbeat piece in order to restore himself to official grace, and that the emotional, sustained ovation at the work's première affirmed a consensus that the symphony was "a good answer" in response to the bureaucratic provocation.

My argument at heart is, if the d minor symphony had been dissident music, it would probably have been the composer's last symphony.

I doubt very much that the work was consciously subversive as that would, as you say, be suicidal for Shostakovich - but there is a depth and gravity about this premiere recording that distinguishes it from any other in my view.

[Karl Henning]

I doubt very much that the work was consciously subversive as that would, as you say, be suicidal for Shostakovich - but there is a depth and gravity about this premiere recording that distinguishes it from any other in my view.

Now that, I think, is fine (depth and gravity).  If the performance/symphony had really projected "a sense of looming catastrophe," well, they should just have moved forward with the c minor symphony and taken their chances.

[vandermolen]

Now that, I think, is fine (depth and gravity).  If the performance/symphony had really projected "a sense of looming catastrophe," well, they should just have moved forward with the c minor symphony and taken their chances.

It's just my morbid imagination Karl.

[Karl Henning]

It's just my morbid imagination Karl.

You're a good sport, Jeffrey, I appreciate that 

[San Antone]

Recently I listened to Kirill Kondrashin and liked the 5th quite a bit.



But I am horrible at comparing recordings, since the one I'm listening to at the moment seems to be the one I like best.

[vandermolen]

Recently I listened to Kirill Kondrashin and liked the 5th quite a bit.



But I am horrible at comparing recordings, since the one I'm listening to at the moment seems to be the one I like best.

I would love the complete Kondrashin cycle but it is ridiculously expensive. I have a few of the individual Melodiya releases including the wonderful versions of symphonies 4 and 11 but not No.5. He was a great conductor.