Shostakovich with Boston/Andris Nelsons - your thoughts and infos, please!

[Tapio Dmitriyevich]

Hey guys,

I must say I was absent for a longer time, from here, from classical music also. My excitement shifted back to electronic music, also production, earned some skills with DAWs and VSTs. Plus, those damn things called RL and work.

So now I got sucked in again. Listening to my favourites often, Shosta on top--- Symphony No. 11 (Haitink/Concertgebouw), No.5/8 by Sanderling/Berlin... Commenting videos on Youtube, feeling so often, that Shostakovich just did it right, he has a link to my emotions :-)

Blahblah So now I remembered there was some hype around Andris Nelsons (there was a DVD IIRC) and then I recognized, he was in Boston and made some recordings for DGG. Insta-buy for me! His Symphony No. 5 has some potential to become my new favourite interpretation. Not yet listened to No. 9 (never really listened to #9!)/10. His #8, need more listens.

What do people think about Shosta/Boston/Nelsons/DGG? General consensus?

And: WHEN WILL HE PRODUCE Symphony No. 11? I doubt there can be another king beside Haitink, but you never know... Also a #15 please? This would not be "under the shadow of Stalin"... but really, I don't like those themes. It's a bit simplistic. Even more extreme was "Shostakovich vs. Stalin", can't remember the records. Ha, need to read the Krzystof Meyer book a second time, I think.

I hope I won't miss a live performance of #11/Tocsin in Germany/Ruhrgebiet, want to see that symphony live one day.

Best regards
Michael

[Mahlerian]

What do people think about Shosta/Boston/Nelsons/DGG? General consensus?

I've been listening to the recordings as they have been released (though none came out last year).  My take is favorable overall, but I haven't been bowled over by any of them.

And: WHEN WILL HE PRODUCE Symphony No. 11? I doubt there can be another king beside Haitink, but you never know... Also a #15 please? This would not be "under the shadow of Stalin"... but really, I don't like those themes. It's a bit simplistic. Even more extreme was "Shostakovich vs. Stalin", can't remember the records. Ha, need to read the Krzystof Meyer book a second time, I think.

DG says that they will record the whole cycle, and Nelsons has already gone beyond the "war years" with this current season, performing the Fourth and the Fourteenth.   The rest will follow in the next few years, though who knows when the CD releases will be.

[kishnevi]

Welcome back!
My take about Nelsons is less enthusiastic. What I've heard is good, but not enough for me to actively want more.

[Mirror Image]

Welcome back!
My take about Nelsons is less enthusiastic. What I've heard is good, but not enough for me to actively want more.

Same here. I've yet to find anyone that have displaced Rozhdestvensky and Haitink.

And a huge welcome back from me, too!

[Daverz]

Overall, I'd recommend the Nelsons/Boston recordings, but note that the only one I've bought is 10.  The rest I've heard on Tidal. 

I quite enjoyed Kitajenko's 11.

I'd also recommend Honeck's 5.

[vandermolen]

Welcome back from me too.

I saw those forces perform Shostakovich's 10th Symphony in London and bought the DGG CD of the same at the concert ( ). Both were and are excellent performances. I haven't heard any of the other CDs yet but they were well reviewed.

[Roasted Swan]

I have only heard the double CD set of 5/8/9.  My sense is very much the same as others who have posted here;  fine performances - superbly played - in their own right but nothing to dislodge the best of the best.  I also liked Honeck recently for a strikingly individual take on this very familiar work - its a real love it or loath it interpretation and the reviews reflect that.  I must admit that oin general I'm not as big a fan of Nelsons as many.  Having heard him on disc and seen him in concert he is clearly able and enthusiastic but aside from the quality of the orchestral playing he gets (but that is pretty much standard around the world now) I don't hear versions that tell me anything "new" about a particular work.  But I'd say the same about most conductors!

The DSCH set I'm looking forward to hearing is the complete cycle from Sladkovsky and the Tartarstan SO on Melodiya - their set of the concerti was superb - idiomatic and riveting.  Hopefully the symphonies will be the same.

[Karl Henning]

Welcome back!
My take about Nelsons is less enthusiastic. What I've heard is good, but not enough for me to actively want more.

Unimaginative programming (much as I love the music, as you know): Look, it worked with Petrenko in Liverpool!  It's the classical music equivalent to Ghost Busters II.

[Karl Henning]

I have only heard the double CD set of 5/8/9.  My sense is very much the same as others who have posted here;  fine performances - superbly played - in their own right but nothing to dislodge the best of the best.

Personally, I do not think it need dislodge the best of the best to be a musically worthwhile endeavor.  (But, as most of yez know, I am sceptical of the best of the best mindset.)

[Tapio Dmitriyevich]

Thanks for your kind words.

Will have an eye on the mentioned new performances. Oh, one on Melodiya again...
Its more curiosity on my side, and less of an urgent need to find new performances. My heroes are well established.

And Rozh... well too old for me, the noise/hiss, I just can't stand it... maybe I'd try to give it some Izotope RX treatment. Wavefile repair software has progressed.

[Mirror Image]

And Rozh... well too old for me, the noise/hiss, I just can't stand it... maybe I'd try to give it some Izotope RX treatment. Wavefile repair software has progressed.

The 1980s is too old for you?

[André]

The Olympia discs of Rozhdestvensky's DSCH are very well recorded. To my old ears they sound perfectly fine, soundwise. And hiss ? Didn't notice any.

If I can lay my hands on a cheapused copy of that Nelsons twofer (5,8,9) I'll probably snatch it.

I'm also interested in his new Bruckner 4th (with the Gewandhausorchester, Leipzig).

[Mirror Image]

The Olympia discs of Rozhdestvensky's DSCH are very well recorded. To my old ears they sound perfectly fine, soundwise. And hiss ? Didn't notice any.

Considering they're Soviet Era productions, I'm quite impressed with the way Rozhdestvensky's cycle sounds, too. No problems with hiss or harshness of sound.

[Tapio Dmitriyevich]

Oh sorry guys, I was confusing it with Rozh/Sibelius, which I have, recording from the 70s. Don't know any Rozhdestvensky performance of Shostakovich. EDIT: I remember I have listened to some recording of the 11th once, but didn't like. The battle scene of mvmt 2 was ultra slow, Sleepidache style. So much disrespect towards the composers will. Others play it ultra fast because they seem to think, turmoil needs speed of light.
I really don't like if composers say to play 60 quarter notes per minute, but conductors decide to play at 30 or 120. General failure, go find another job. My opinion may or may not be true or wrong or nothing.

[Mirror Image]

Oh sorry guys, I was confusing it with Rozh/Sibelius, which I have, recording from the 70s. Don't know any Rozhdestvensky performance of Shostakovich. EDIT: I remember I have listened to some recording of the 11th once, but didn't like. The battle scene of mvmt 2 was ultra slow, Sleepidache style. So much disrespect towards the composers will. Others play it ultra fast because they seem to think, turmoil needs speed of light.
I really don't like if composers say to play 60 quarter notes per minute, but conductors decide to play at 30 or 120. General failure, go find another job. My opinion may or may not be true or wrong or nothing.

I find that the interpretative value of Rozhdestvensky's Shostakovich deserves more than one listen. His 4th and 8th, for example, are the finest I've heard of these symphonies. It's true that his tempo in The Ninth of January from the 11th isn't what we're accustomed to hearing, but I generally welcome a different interpretation as long as it's performed with genuine passion, which I believe is what Rozhdestvensky's performance offers.

[Tapio Dmitriyevich]

For a moment I thought: "Shosta8/Rozh, don't have it". Aargh. Spotify. There's roth+LSO. Will try your recommendations. For the 8th, I'm used to Sanderling /Berlin Symphony Orchestra.

[relm1]

I love the Shostakovich 4 and 11 release with Andris Nelsons/BSO.  There is an emphasis on Bach in this interpretation.  Let me explain.  In movement 5. Allegro of Symphony No. 4 we get in to neo classicism at around 4 minutes in.  Shosti is so brilliant that he maneuvers stylistically very seductively.  At 5:21 he is very much classical.  I don't think I've heard an interpretation where this classical influence was as apparent as it is here.  The rhythms are strict and the polyphony exact.  Most recordings of this work to me emphasize the Mahler aspects.  This is a beautiful interpretation. 

[Karl Henning]

Yours is an interesting point, and I do very much enjoy this release, as well.  Just a note that the Fourth is actually in three movements, and for whatever reason, they have split the first and third movements into two tracks each.

[relm1]

Yours is an interesting point, and I do very much enjoy this release, as well.  Just a note that the Fourth is actually in three movements, and for whatever reason, they have split the first and third movements into two tracks each.

Sorry, I meant the fifth track but yes the third movement.

[vandermolen]

I really liked 10 which I saw them do live and now I have 4 and 11 - two of my favourites. I especially liked No 4, superbly played and recorded. I've only listened to No.11 once and it was again brilliantly performed and recorded. However, it does not displace Kondrashin, Berglund, Lazarev, Caetani, Krabits or John Pritchard (a record of a concert I attended) nor Kitajenko for that matter. I was more moved by those performances but Nelson's No.4 is very special in my view. I don't have the set with symphonies 5 and 8 etc on,