Kondrashin's Shostakovich

[Tapiola]

If anyone is interested in acquiring this set, don't be offput that it is now showing as "deactivated item". The same message appeared once I had purchased it, but then disappeared quite shortly afterwards (a day or 2), as other copies became available.

[Richard Barrett]

Does anyone actually listen to 2 and 3?

I certainly do, in preference to 7, 11 and 12 anyway. The choral endings of both are a bit of a problem, but many interesting things happen before that in both I think.

[Petrushka]

I certainly do, in preference to 7, 11 and 12 anyway. The choral endings of both are a bit of a problem, but many interesting things happen before that in both I think.

Ditto to this (apart from in preference to 7,11 & 12 that is).

[richardfinegold]

There was also a live Kondrashin account of the 13th Symphony on Russian Disc but this was of the second ever performance on December 20 1962 - is this by any chance the one on Qobuz? The 1962 recording is sensational, an eavesdropping on to history being made and the tension is palpable. It is almost as if all concerned expect to be arrested at any moment so great is the tension in the air.

The re-mastered Melodiya set of the symphonies (plus other works) is a revelation and should be in every DSCH collection. Don't expect sonic miracles but the sound is light years ahead of the previous CD issue in that door stopper of a box. We are incredibly lucky to have such great Shostakovich recordings from those who were close to the composer such as Mravinsky, Kondrashin, Rozhdestvensky, Svetlanov and Rostropovich.

Barshai also worked with the Composer and left a fine set of Symphonies, although I’m not very keen on the orchestrations of the String Quartets

[HighlandDougie]

As for the 4th - a thunderous performance (akin to Kondrashin's premiere studio recording with the Moscow PO).

It's like finding the Holy Grail!

The (mono) sound of the 4th is remarkably good - there is a bit of a background hum but one's ears adjust quickly to it and tune it out. And no distortion, unlike the Melodiya recording. KK must have had a decent amount of rehearsal time as the performance is remarkably assured on the part of the "Moscow Regional Philharmonic Orchestra" (I assume that it's the Moscow PO). Anyway, it's a thrilling find so many thanks again to Tapiola for bringing it to light. The 13th is, as Tapiola says, "wildly exciting". Listening to it reminded me that I once attended a - very theatrical but nonetheless powerful - reading of Babi Yar by Yevtushenko himself in Edinburgh when I was a student.

[Tapiola]

Thanks HD. I do agree that I was very pleasantly surprised by the sound on the 4th. As you say, without distortion, with good balance and the orchestra is very fine, considering this is the premiere. Do I detect a moment in the first movement - at the moment the woodblock enters following the fugal string "chase scene" where the engineer takes fright and turns the dial down a little (though not enough to spoil in an way the impact)? And yes, I imagine the orchestra must be the Moscow PO. What perhaps impresses me the most is that there is no holding back from either conductor or band, given the occasion and the fact that this is the first appearance of a highly controversial work, suppressed* for a quarter-century.

*or, rather, withdrawn by the composer.

[Tapiola]

I recall reading in Elizabeth Wilson's "Shostakovich: a Life Remembered" that, once the full score of the 4th was reconstructed from the surviving orchestral parts (the autograph score being lost) - nearly 25 years after the work was written, the composer informed KK that no changes whatsoever needed to be made.

Elsewhere, in Volkov's "Testimony" (if it is to be believed), KK asked DSCH whether he wanted to change anything in the work. "Let them eat it", was the composer's reply.

[Barbirollians]

Barshai also worked with the Composer and left a fine set of Symphonies, although I’m not very keen on the orchestrations of the String Quartets

I rather like them . Indeed, hearing the orchestration of the Eighth as a teenager was my first experience of Shostakovich - followed by a terrific concert at the Festival Hall with Rostropovich conducting the First Symphony with his Washington orchestra ( with Mutter playing the Mendelssohn Concerto and Beethoven 4 in the first half as I recall)