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Il Grande Inquisitor
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« Reply #600 on: 23:14:07, 21-03-2008 » |
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Our chief weapon is surprise...surprise and fear...fear and surprise.... Our two weapons are fear and surprise...and ruthless efficiency
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Ron Dough
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« Reply #601 on: 23:26:30, 21-03-2008 » |
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Aha, IGI, that works - the other one was requesting a password!
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Il Grande Inquisitor
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« Reply #602 on: 22:13:01, 05-04-2008 » |
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 This arrived today and is as mightily impressive as the recent NYPO broadcast; as fine a modern account as I've heard (I'd be interested in hearing Järvi and Bychkov in DSCH 4). The only slight carp I'd have would be having the Lady Macbeth Suite, with its raucous opening, coming after the symphony, although I suppose Hänssler do give it a ten second 'run-in' before it starts (and I could always re-programme the order on the CD). Impressive playing from the Stuttgart orchestra and, to my ears, a very fine recorded sound - plenty of clarity, enabling me to pick out orchestral details well. |
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Our chief weapon is surprise...surprise and fear...fear and surprise.... Our two weapons are fear and surprise...and ruthless efficiency
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brassbandmaestro
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« Reply #603 on: 16:49:35, 07-04-2008 » |
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Amongst the many shosta cds in my collection, I only have the one version of his 4th, but thanks to IGI, I will have to buy this cd to add as well. Like IGI, with the cd format, its always easier to programme cds to how you want to, which is what I usually do, myself.
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Ron Dough
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« Reply #604 on: 16:59:59, 07-04-2008 » |
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It's by no means the most essential one to have, BBM: I'd suggest that any of the three Kondrashin versions or those by Rozhdestvensky, Rostropovich or (easiest of all to find) Previn and Barshai are likely to be miles in front; albeit that I have yet to hear it, the similarity of its timings to his recent broadcast strongly suggests that the sluggishness of the second movement in particular (even slower than the broadcast, judging by Bryn's timings) would be enough to knock an otherwise worthy performance some way down the list.
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Il Grande Inquisitor
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« Reply #605 on: 17:09:08, 07-04-2008 » |
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The Barshai should also be available singly at budget price, as is the Previn (although I've not got the latter).
The only other 'recent' recording of the 4th I have is that from Gergiev and his Mariinsky orchestra, where the first movement runs to just under 29 minutes! In a trawl through DVDs I've recorded from the tv, I came across an LSO performance under Gergiev, which I may well watch later to see how it compares with the CD.
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Our chief weapon is surprise...surprise and fear...fear and surprise.... Our two weapons are fear and surprise...and ruthless efficiency
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Ron Dough
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« Reply #606 on: 17:22:45, 07-04-2008 » |
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I've heard the first movement of the Gergiev recording at a friend's house, as I think I've mentioned before: he seems so intent on micro-managing from moment to moment that he loses sight of the big picture: so busy underlining everything that the big events are indistinguishable from everything else. Boreyko manages that far better, but that second movement really irks me.
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Il Grande Inquisitor
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« Reply #607 on: 20:17:11, 09-04-2008 » |
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I watched the Gergiev/ LSO Barbican performance of No.4 again yesterday and a look at the timings confirmed that this is a much tighter performance than his Kirov recording. I expect members here may well remember that it was broadcast as part of the ‘Forbidden Shostakovich’ season on BBC4. Timings were (i) 27:24 (ii) 8:07 (iii) 26:42. The first movement is quite a bit swifter than his Kirov account. I’m not so sure that Gergiev necessarily ‘micro-manages’ things; rather he suffered, a few years ago, recording engineers who balanced things rather oddly (such as his Scheherazade with the added ‘reverb’). Even better, in my memory at least, was his Proms performance of No.4, which was just exhausting to experience; the atmosphere conjured up at the symphony’s close came across onto the screen in a way televised concerts do not often achieve.
On a separate note, I’ve just been successful in bids for two Rozhdestvensky Olympia recordings of No.4 (coupled with the 1st Jazz Suite) and No.10 (with Hamlet fragments). I look forward to those, especially after hearing his No.15 recently.
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Our chief weapon is surprise...surprise and fear...fear and surprise.... Our two weapons are fear and surprise...and ruthless efficiency
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Il Grande Inquisitor
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« Reply #608 on: 14:55:39, 12-04-2008 » |
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For those of you unable to wait for Bernard Haitink and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra at the Proms, another fine Shostakovich conductor will be appearing at the RFH on Wednesday. |
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Our chief weapon is surprise...surprise and fear...fear and surprise.... Our two weapons are fear and surprise...and ruthless efficiency
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Il Grande Inquisitor
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« Reply #609 on: 10:37:47, 16-04-2008 » |
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For those of you who remember the iTunes bargain/ pricing slip up of the Haitink set of symphonies, another bargain is to be had...  ...9 CDs for £7.99! It came up as a result of a search using the words 'Shostakovich' and 'Previn'! |
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« Last Edit: 22:09:37, 18-05-2008 by Il Grande Inquisitor »
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Our chief weapon is surprise...surprise and fear...fear and surprise.... Our two weapons are fear and surprise...and ruthless efficiency
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338
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« Reply #610 on: 21:56:28, 18-05-2008 » |
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I have just been listening to the 9th that was broadcast a few days ago by the Ulster Orch.I was wondering if anyone had any idea why it is as it is?For a man who wrote other pieces of music to celebrate one piece of history or another it seems on the surface to be a little bit lightweight.That is not to say I don't like the piece but it is one of the symphonies I have not listened to very often unlike the 4th,7th,8th and 10th.The 4th in particular is,for quite along time now,the most played of any of my cds or dvds.Every time I listen to the 4th I hear something new in the scoring whether from one of my older recordings or from my more recent buys(KK Melodiya,Rohzdestvenky Edinburgh 1962 or Boryenko/Stuttgart or the broadcast Boryenko/NYPO).I must say that seeing the 4th on dvd is very informative in the way the various sections or individuals interact with one another in producing such a wild wonderful sound picture.I have often wondered how many adjectives it would take to describe the 4th symphony of DSCH.
I have had no musical training over the years so I find the info on these boards very interesting.Thankyou All
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Il Grande Inquisitor
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« Reply #611 on: 08:32:50, 24-05-2008 » |
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The 9th is certainly very different to the symphonies which preceded it, 338. I’m no expert (where's Ron?) but I’d suggest there are lashings of irony here. Shostakovich was supposed to write a symphony to celebrate the Russian victory over the Germans; furthermore, it was to be his ninth symphony and since Beethoven, people expected ‘big things’ of a 9th – a sense of valediction, complete with chorus and soloists. Shostakovich gave Stalin and his cronies none of these, just a simple, witty, short symphony, which didn’t find favour with the authorities or the Soviet critics, who censured the symphony for its "ideological weakness" and its failure to "reflect the true spirit of the people of the Soviet Union".
Here’s a plug, too, for Building a Library this morning, which is on the 13th Babi Yar, reviewed by Edward Seckerson. Kondrashin is required listening, of course, but I’d be intrigued to see which modern recording gets the nod.
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Our chief weapon is surprise...surprise and fear...fear and surprise.... Our two weapons are fear and surprise...and ruthless efficiency
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Descombes
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« Reply #612 on: 09:01:19, 24-05-2008 » |
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Here’s a plug, too, for Building a Library this morning, which is on the 13th Babi Yar, reviewed by Edward Seckerson. Kondrashin is required listening, of course, but I’d be intrigued to see which modern recording gets the nod.
Thanks for alerting me to the subject of B/Library this morning; I had not noticed. An interesting symphony....and discussed by a real Shostakovich enthusiast. Such a shame that people of Seckerson's quality don't seem to fit into the Wright concept of Radio 3: great knowledge of a wide range of 20th century music and (unlike most of today's mumblers) a clear and attractive voice! |
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Il Grande Inquisitor
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« Reply #613 on: 13:54:47, 24-05-2008 » |
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A very good edition. Having heard Edward Seckerson reviewing the Kondrashin box last year, when it was re-released on Melodiya, his advocacy of this version, with Arthur Eisen as soloist, was no surprise, and deservedly so. It was interesting to hear some of the more recent interpretations – I didn’t know that Sergei Leiferkus had recorded the 13th and was intrigued by the Yevtushenko clip of him reading his poem, but the orchestral contribution under Masur seemed a little underwhelming. It was a pity that recent(ish) SACD recordings under Caetani and Kofman weren’t mentioned; perhaps they have little to say about this extraordinary music.
The Wigglesworth sounds worthy of investigation, although the soloist, Jan-Hendrik Rootering, didn’t have the necessary ‘bite’ required. I disagree about Anatoly Kotscherga, on Järvi’s DG recording, whose black bass is just what’s required, especially in ‘Humour’. All in all, fascinating listening.
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Our chief weapon is surprise...surprise and fear...fear and surprise.... Our two weapons are fear and surprise...and ruthless efficiency
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oliver sudden
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« Reply #614 on: 17:13:25, 24-05-2008 » |
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Ah, but did they consider the live Kondrashin recording from the second performance?  |
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