Your First Shostakovich Record

[Tevot]

The 7th Symphony - "Leningrad" - with Haitink and the LPO

[kea]

I heard a live performance of Trio No. 2, somewhere. I don't even remember who was playing, but it got me interested and I proceeded to acquire the Vienna Piano Trio's recordings of Trios 1 & 2. Pretty much never listened to No. 1 either. >.>

First purchase (as opposed to rip of library CD) was Ormandy/Philadelphia's Symphonies 4 & 10. Oddly, I never listened to No. 10 that much either. Still don't.

[Roehre]

I have a rule .... only to buy works that I don't already have ....

Makes two of us, a rule which I only rarely "voluntarily" breach.
"Involuntarily" only BBC MM CDs and so-called "fillers" are causing adding already present works to my collection.

[Radio64]

Symphony No. 7 - Kurt Masur and NY Philharmonic. (Apex CD)

[Beef Oven!]

Philadelphia Orchestra / Ormandy: Symphony No. 4.

[ahinton]

It was the only recording of it that I could get at the time (and, I believe, the first one that was committed to disc in the West); it's hard to imagine what the composer must have felt about this, one of his finest achievements of all, having taken a quarter century to see the light of day...

[Lordgeous]

Philadelphia Orchestra / Ormandy: Symphony No. 4.

Yea, bought that one too!

[richardfinegold]

Yea, bought that one too!

I have that, coupled with the 10th on a budget twofer. Ormandy was a very good Shostakovich Conductor, and the sound of the Philadelphia Orchestra is ideal, unless you really need to hear the blatty Russian brass of Soviet era Orchestras.

[Radio64]

I have that, coupled with the 10th on a budget twofer. Ormandy was a very good Shostakovich Conductor, and the sound of the Philadelphia Orchestra is ideal, unless you really need to hear the blatty Russian brass of Soviet era Orchestras.

Noted

[Bryn]

It was the only recording of it that I could get at the time (and, I believe, the first one that was committed to disc in the West); it's hard to imagine what the composer must have felt about this, one of his finest achievements of all, having taken a quarter century to see the light of day...

Shostakovich and Weinberg (and other close colleagues, I understand) did play the 2 piano reduction at private gatherings. It was the orchestral score that had to wait so long for a public airing.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Makes two of us, a rule which I only rarely "voluntarily" breach.

Mine's a more recent decision, based on a forthcoming steep drop in income. Hitherto, I've been a magpie: acquiring seven complete Beethoven Symphony cycles for example - but a survey of my collection revealed some shocking absences (I don't have the 'cello Sonatas or String Trios - and the Brahms, Schumann and Chopin complete Piano Music had several important gaps). It's to fill these missing items that I'm cutting out duplications for the forseeable.

[BeethovensQuill]

I bought 2 CD's the same day both Haitink CD's of the 5th and 9th and 2nd and 10th.

[Petrushka]

Philadelphia Orchestra / Ormandy: Symphony No. 4.

I bought this LP in July 1976, during that unforgettable hot summer, having never heard the work before. Thanks then to the unusually detailed sleeve notes for making it easier to navigate my way through it.

[richardfinegold]

Shostakovich and Weinberg (and other close colleagues, I understand) did play the 2 piano reduction at private gatherings. It was the orchestral score that had to wait so long for a public airing.

Was there a two piano score of the 4th? You may be confusing it with the famous recording of the 2 piano version of the 10th

[Bryn]

Was there a two piano score of the 4th? You may be confusing it with the famous recording of the 2 piano version of the 10th

There is even a modern recording of the 2 piano version on Chandos. It's from the notes accompanying it that I learned of the private performances in the period between the withdrawal of the orchestral score and it's premier in the '60s.

Check out the first amazon.co.uk customer review of the Chandos recording for further info on the 2 piano arrangement's introduction to small group of the composer's close colleagues in 1945.