Shostakovich Symphonies, Cycles & Otherwise

[vandermolen]

The Chicago brass in that Previn recording of the Fourth are something else, Jeffrey.

Karl

I also a great fan of Previn's recording of Symphony 10 (EMI). The second movement is controversially slow but it helps you to hear it in a different way - which I rather like.

[Karl Henning]

Interesting, too, Jeffrey!

[Beale]

Ok, a question about the fifth symphony to stay on topic.

Reading the Classicstoday.com reviews, it appears there are two ways for a conductor to approach the finale. Victor Carr Jr wrote this about Lorin Maazel and the Cleveland Orchestra: "Maazel's finale builds to an excitingly affirmative conclusion–the kind prevalent before the revisionist "ironic" ending popularized by Rostropovich".

Now compare David Hurwitz on Yakov Kreizberg and Russian National Orchestra: "Kreizberg, like Sanderling, is absolutely convinced that the finale does not represent a "happy" ending."

So what do you prefer?

[Karl Henning]

I think that the musical question has been burdened with the politicization of The Shostakovich Wars.

On my own bottom line, there are two points:

1. In terms of the narrative of the composer's career:  Since the symphony was pointedly an olive branch for rehabilitation (survival, really) I do not see Shostakovich risking any appearance of thumbing his nose.

2. In purely musical terms:  I don't see the slower VS. faster tempo as simply mapping onto grief VS. joy.  Is the fast tempo of the Scherzo of the Tenth symphony an indication of happiness?

[Sergeant Rock]

Ok, a question about the fifth symphony to stay on topic.

Reading the Classicstoday.com reviews, it appears there are two ways for a conductor to approach the finale. Victor Carr Jr wrote this about Lorin Maazel and the Cleveland Orchestra: "Maazel's finale builds to an excitingly affirmative conclusion–the kind prevalent before the revisionist "ironic" ending popularized by Rostropovich".

Now compare David Hurwitz on Yakov Kreizberg and Russian National Orchestra: "Kreizberg, like Sanderling, is absolutely convinced that the finale does not represent a "happy" ending."

So what do you prefer?

I prefer neither...or rather, I want it both ways. Which I turn to on any given day depends on my mood. As I've said elsewhere, my two favorite performances have finales that demonstrate those interpretative differences: Rostropovich/National makes the ending sound like repeated violent stabs to the heart while Bernstein/New York is unalloyed triumph.

Sarge

[Dancing Divertimentian]

An overlooked 4th from Rozhdestvensky is this fire-breathing account with the Bolshoi:





The sound is better than what I've heard from the more common USSR Ministry of Culture DSCH recordings.

[Fafner]

I prefer neither...or rather, I want it both ways. Which I turn to on any given day depends on my mood. As I've said elsewhere, my two favorite performances have finales that demonstrate those interpretative differences: Rostropovich/National makes the ending sound like repeated violent stabs to the heart while Bernstein/New York is unalloyed triumph.

I obviously don't get it.  I thought you are supposed to play it as though it is unalloyed triumph, but the over-the-top orchestration and off-kilter harmony plants the seed in your mind that something is being mocked.

[Dancing Divertimentian]

Another dark horse but really shouldn't be: Shostakovich was present at this recording (fine 1958 stereo sound):



[asin]B000003XK2[/asin]

[mahler10th]

Jarvi and the SNO accounts of Shosty have not yet won acclaim here.   

[Dancing Divertimentian]

Almost forgot this near one-stop from Wigglesworth:



[asin]B00000JF6O[/asin]

[vandermolen]

Jarvi and the SNO accounts of Shosty have not yet won acclaim here.   

I did give a thumbs up for his recording of Symphony 4.

[vandermolen]

An overlooked 4th from Rozhdestvensky is this fire-breathing account with the Bolshoi:





The sound is better than what I've heard from the more common USSR Ministry of Culture DSCH recordings.

Looks like a very interesting CD. I have his recording on Olympia.

[vandermolen]

Another dark horse but really shouldn't be: Shostakovich was present at this recording (fine 1958 stereo sound):



[asin]B000003XK2[/asin]

I have this CD and agree that it is an excellent performance deserving of greater attention.

[Dancing Divertimentian]

Looks like a very interesting CD. I have his recording on Olympia.

I forgot to mention it's live. It'd be interesting to compare the two.

[Octo_Russ]

I have this recording of the Fifth, i've always been endeared to it, though i hear a number of people don't rate Bychkov, plus there's no coupling.

[mahler10th]

I have this recording of the Fifth, i've always been endeared to it, though i hear a number of people don't rate Bychkov, plus there's no coupling.

What a shame.  I think Bychkov is one of few who bring the best out of the music before him.  Never heard his Shostakovich though.  Must trace that and have a listen.

[mahler10th]

You won't regret it! It is the most extaordinary experience listening to it - from the angry shouted protests at the start to the wild ovation at the end. All very moving in the circumstances. The Rimsky Korsakov fillers are very fine too.  By the way I don't agree with the review on Amazon.com and posted my own on Amazon UK - but you must make your own mind up and I'll be interested to hear what you think.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Evgeny-Svetlanov-State-Symphony-Orchestra/dp/B0059B0BZ4/ref=sr_1_1?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1342694735&sr=1-1

I must get that.  That must be the same night as Rostropovich did Czech Dvoraks Cello Concerto to the same audience.  Brilliant.  It is my No1 on must get.

[eyeresist]

I think that the musical question has been burdened with the politicization of The Shostakovich Wars.

On my own bottom line, there are two points:

1. In terms of the narrative of the composer's career:  Since the symphony was pointedly an olive branch for rehabilitation (survival, really) I do not see Shostakovich risking any appearance of thumbing his nose.

2. In purely musical terms:  I don't see the slower VS. faster tempo as simply mapping onto grief VS. joy.  Is the fast tempo of the Scherzo of the Tenth symphony an indication of happiness?

I agree with you here. I don't think the actual music points either way.

[Karl Henning]

The ambivalence is, I think, one of the indicators of the music's strength.  It works smokin' hot, and it works cool.

[Karl Henning]

Separately . . . here is what Hurwitz says of the Ančerl/Cz Phil recording of the Tenth:

It's amusing to remember that for much of the 1960s, Deutsche Grammophon was a local German label, and every so often we see evidence of its roots. Nothing else accounts for the notes to this release, which spend nearly all of their time talking about Wolfgang Schneiderhan and the Berlin Philharmonic while hardly mentioning Karel Ancerl and completely neglecting the Czech Philharmonic (and for much of the '50s and '60s the Czech orchestra was better than Berlin). Indeed, good as the Schneiderhan/Ancerl Stravinsky concerto is (and it's very good indeed, particularly in the two inner movements that Stravinsky labeled Aria I and Aria II), the real draw is this best-ever performance of Shostakovich's Tenth Symphony.

Recorded in 1956, just a couple of years after its premiere, this reading by Ancerl and the Czech Philharmonic still blows away most of the competition, including Mravinsky and Leningrad. The first movement flows spontaneously and effortlessly forward, rising to a massive central climax. Ancerl's scherzo never has been bettered, either for its playing or in its demonic drive and uninhibited emotional intensity (Mitropoulos actually was a bit faster, but far less disciplined). The third movement, with its evocative horn calls, sees Ancerl emphasizing its cool, mechanical rhythms to unsettling effect, while the finale flies by on a surge of adrenaline, those amazing Czech winds well to the fore. I can't imagine another European orchestra at this time that technically could have offered anything close to this achievement.