Essential Shostakovich Discs

[richardfinegold]

The discogs site says that Haitink's version of the 14th symphony was the first to use a version (that had the composer's approval) in the original languages (though in back-translation, I read elsewhere, so presumably not the actual original texts).

https://www.discogs.com/Shostakovich-Varády-Fischer-Dieskau-Concertgebouw-Orchestra-Haitink-Symphony-No-14/release/6489742

Can the knowlegeable folk on here tell me if this practice caught on, either in performance or practice?
I'm not aware of any comment about language(s) being made on recordings I've seen (not that I've really looked, it must be said). It seems to me a rather odd thing to do, if the composer set everything in Russian.

I know of a few recordings that used the original poems in the original languages but couldn't cite them right now. I do have a recollection of a very Teutonic sounding Lorca.

[richardfinegold]

The Boston/Nelsons set won a Grammy, if anyone cares...

[richardfinegold]

JLW's pleas on behalf of Rozhdestvensky, Kondrashin etc should not go unheeded. True, you have Soviet era brass and occasionally not the best sonics but what you do have is something utterly priceless: authenticity. Those who go big on 'authenticity' in Bach etc have the real thing when it comes to Shostakovich. Not even today's crop of Russian conductors such as Gergiev and Petrenko can boast this.

I've been very fortunate to have seen most of the conductors who knew Shostakovich perform his music, albeit with Western orchestras, though the only time I saw Kondrashin he performed Rachmaninov and ditto Barshai when he performed Prokofiev. I was present when Maxim Shostakovich gave a concert of his father's music with the LPO just after his defection to the West in 1981 and I went backstage afterwards to meet him.

it is easy to forget now that Shostakovich was hot news in the aftermath of the publication of the Volkov Testimony book and Maxim's defection but all this has receded into history as time marches on.

So, yes, for the truly essential Shostakovich discs you must have Mravinsky, Kondrashin and Rozhdestvensky without question, plus anything by Svetlanov, Rostropovich and Maxim that you can get hold of.

No one has mentioned the complete set that Maxim Shostakovich made with the Prague Symphony Orchestra for Supraphon. Does anyone know it?

No disrespect intended towards Petrushka or jlw, but while there are undoubtedly some benefits of having Russian and contemporaries of the Composer playing the music, I don't think it is all that important, and any advantages may be canceled by the negatives.
Shostakovich was an international Composer in his outlook. He idolized Mahler and tried to get his hands on any Mahler score or recording. Wagner was another strong influence (see the odes to RW in the 15th Symphony.
Secondly, starting in the 1970s when Soviet Jews were allowed to emigrate, and then really accelerating with the fall of the Wall, there are a lot of expatriate Russian musicians in many non Russian Orchestras. The Detroit Orchestra had about 30 Russians at one point. Even smaller proportions can significantly alter the sound of Orchestra.
Then there are the negatives of the contemporary Russian recordings. The saxophone like brass choir, the microphones that sound like they were placed in the middle of the taiga....In the lp days, the vinyl that that had surfaces like gravel....
I'll take Haitink from Amsterdam or Nelsons from Boston in nice pristine digital sound, thank you very much...

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Then there are the negatives of the contemporary Russian recordings. The saxophone like brass choir,

Non sequitur for me, this. I sympathise with much of what you write (I'd opt for Haitink in most of the Symphonies in preference to Barshai, Rostropovich, or Rozhdestvensky for example) but for all the restrictions on recorded sound on many earlier Soviet recordings, the tempi, balance, and timbres are close to what the composer was used to hearing and was expecting when he wrote the works - a bonus which outweighs matters of Hi/Lo-Fi for me.

[Petrushka]

The discogs site says that Haitink's version of the 14th symphony was the first to use a version (that had the composer's approval) in the original languages (though in back-translation, I read elsewhere, so presumably not the actual original texts).

https://www.discogs.com/Shostakovich-Varády-Fischer-Dieskau-Concertgebouw-Orchestra-Haitink-Symphony-No-14/release/6489742

Can the knowlegeable folk on here tell me if this practice caught on, either in performance or practice?
I'm not aware of any comment about language(s) being made on recordings I've seen (not that I've really looked, it must be said). It seems to me a rather odd thing to do, if the composer set everything in Russian.

The notes to the Haitink recording have this to say:

In the original version of the Symphony, the poems by Apollinaire, Garcia Lorca and Rilke were sung in Russian translation, although the composer authorised a version to be sung entirely in German. In this third version, also inspected and approved by Shostakovich, the poems are sung in their original languages, with exception of Apollinaire's 'Loreley', which follow closely a German poem written in 1801 by Clemens Brentano and which is here sung in that language.

It is ironic really because this is probably Shostakovich's most Russian work, yet only one poem (O Delvig, Delvig!) is actually set in Russian. Knowing the work as I do, I have extreme difficulty in following the text in Haitink's version as it sounds all wrong. The Russian sounds more natural word setting. I've only heard it once in performance (Halle Orchestra/Arvid Jansons, Maris's father, in 1978).

The first recording I ever bought was the Vishnevskaya/Reshetin/Rostropovich one on a Melodiya LP. Has this ever been transferred to CD?

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

The first recording I ever bought was the Vishnevskaya/Reshetin/Rostropovich one on a Melodiya LP. Has this ever been transferred to CD?

Yup:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Shostakovich-Symphonies-Nos-14-Elatus/dp/B00069578K

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Shostakovich-Symphony-No-14-Dmitry/dp/B000025B7M

https://www.amazon.co.uk/d/mgj/Shostakovich-Symphony-No-14-Blok-Romances-Dmitry/B000006BBA

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Symphony-14-Shostakovich/dp/B00008FEN4

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Concertos-Piano-Orchestra-Symphony-2xVinyl/dp/B01N3A52FN

... and surely overdue for a sensibly-priced reissue.

[Pulcinella]

The notes to the Haitink recording have this to say:

In the original version of the Symphony, the poems by Apollinaire, Garcia Lorca and Rilke were sung in Russian translation, although the composer authorised a version to be sung entirely in German. In this third version, also inspected and approved by Shostakovich, the poems are sung in their original languages, with exception of Apollinaire's 'Loreley', which follow closely a German poem written in 1801 by Clemens Brentano and which is here sung in that language.

It is ironic really because this is probably Shostakovich's most Russian work, yet only one poem (O Delvig, Delvig!) is actually set in Russian. Knowing the work as I do, I have extreme difficulty in following the text in Haitink's version as it sounds all wrong. The Russian sounds more natural word setting. I've only heard it once in performance (Halle Orchestra/Arvid Jansons, Maris's father, in 1978).

The first recording I ever bought was the Vishnevskaya/Reshetin/Rostropovich one on a Melodiya LP. Has this ever been transferred to CD?

The Haitink does indeed seem a strange confection!
I'm pretty sure that I have been to only one concert performance of this symphony, in Aberdeen Music Hall, in 1982 or 1983, most likely.

[Dave2002]

Non sequitur for me, this. I sympathise with much of what you write (I'd opt for Haitink in most of the Symphonies in preference to Barshai, Rostropovich, or Rozhdestvensky for example) but for all the restrictions on recorded sound on many earlier Soviet recordings, the tempi, balance, and timbres are close to what the composer was used to hearing and was expecting when he wrote the works - a bonus which outweighs matters of Hi/Lo-Fi for me.

Surely this is nonsense. We can listen to recordings from bygone days - even as far back as the early 1900s, and wonder at the pretty dreadful sound quality. We might notice some odd performance practices, but as an impression of what audiences, including the composers, actually heard this is almost certainly not what they were used to.

Most us are aware of terrible goings on in the 1930s and 1940s, and often we rely on film from the time - black and white. Of course they were dark days, but not necessarily dark in terms of weather. Where there are colour films available, it is often quite surprising how good the weather was on some days, and how colourful some scenes were too. We should not allow our own emotions to colour "facts". Thus I believe that good musicians and composers would have been fully familiar with what a good orchestra sounded like, and would have recognised the deficiencies of recordings made at the time.

[Petrushka]

Yup:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Shostakovich-Symphonies-Nos-14-Elatus/dp/B00069578K

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Shostakovich-Symphony-No-14-Dmitry/dp/B000025B7M

https://www.amazon.co.uk/d/mgj/Shostakovich-Symphony-No-14-Blok-Romances-Dmitry/B000006BBA

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Symphony-14-Shostakovich/dp/B00008FEN4

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Concertos-Piano-Orchestra-Symphony-2xVinyl/dp/B01N3A52FN

... and surely overdue for a sensibly-priced reissue.

Cheers, Ferney. I've opted for the second one on your list. £12 + £1.26 p/p doesn't seem too excessive.

[Nick Armstrong]

I bought that Svetlanov LP of the 10th in August 1975, in the very week that Shostakovich died. Someone on the Forum (forget who sorry, Highland Dougie?) alerted us to a download from HMV of all places and I duly bought it.

And here it is: https://www.hmvdigital.com/releases/3573870

My second ever Shostakovich LP, still have it - something very very special about his way with the first movement, nothing else has displaced it. Possibly because I listened to it 100s of times in my teens and it's hardwired into my brain now.

Waited aeons for it to come out on CD - and didn't get the download as I wasn't geared up then to listen properly.

However I'm very grateful for the reminder and to Beef! for pointing out it's on Qobuz

[Nick Armstrong]

An essential disc for me which I don't think anyone's mentioned is this, possibly my favourite of the 15th (along with my first ever DSCH disc, the Ormandy/Philadelphia, and more recently the Haitink):



A little-known recording I think and hard to find - I'm so glad I snapped it up on its release. Breathtaking.

[Bryn]

Yup:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Shostakovich-Symphonies-Nos-14-Elatus/dp/B00069578K

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Shostakovich-Symphony-No-14-Dmitry/dp/B000025B7M

https://www.amazon.co.uk/d/mgj/Shostakovich-Symphony-No-14-Blok-Romances-Dmitry/B000006BBA

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Symphony-14-Shostakovich/dp/B00008FEN4

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Concertos-Piano-Orchestra-Symphony-2xVinyl/dp/B01N3A52FN

... and surely overdue for a sensibly-priced reissue.

I have the Russian Revelation disc. it cost me all of £1, brand new, remaindered in "The Works". The Symphony was recorded 12 February 1973. The Blok Romances recording is of the premier, 27 October 1967. Come to that, I also have the same recording of the symphony in the Warner boxed set. I think that was an HMV sale purchase. Not my favourite survey of the Shostakovich symphonies, but it has its merits. There are a couple copies of this boxed set, new, at amazon.co.uk, priced at £27.04, replete with free mp3 downloads to boot. Search for ASIN: B000NJM1H8 .

[Petrushka]

Surely this is nonsense. We can listen to recordings from bygone days - even as far back as the early 1900s, and wonder at the pretty dreadful sound quality. We might notice some odd performance practices, but as an impression of what audiences, including the composers, actually heard this is almost certainly not what they were used to.

Most us are aware of terrible goings on in the 1930s and 1940s, and often we rely on film from the time - black and white. Of course they were dark days, but not necessarily dark in terms of weather. Where there are colour films available, it is often quite surprising how good the weather was on some days, and how colourful some scenes were too. We should not allow our own emotions to colour "facts". Thus I believe that good musicians and composers would have been fully familiar with what a good orchestra sounded like, and would have recognised the deficiencies of recordings made at the time.

We're not talking about prehistoric recordings! The Kondrashin cycle, for instance , was recorded in the 1960s while Rozhdestvensky's dates from the 1980s and the former has been remastered to splendid effect. No, it is the sound of the Soviet era orchestras that would have been in Shostakovich's mind's ear as he composed and we have that sound miraculously preserved through recordings made in his lifetime or shortly after. It's Authenticity with a capital A which is why I can't understand why some people praise the 'authenticity' of a Bach recording but are not prepared to accept the real deal when it's there with Shostakovich (and Elgar, come to that).

[Dave2002]

Fair enough, though I was thinking of rfg's comment re some Russian recordings. Also some US orchestras did good performances of Russian works - particularly ones like the Philadelphia under Ormandy - and the composition of the orchestras may not have been so different from ones in Russia at the time. By the late 1960s and 1970s most recording companies were capable of producing decent enough recordings. There was definitely a period when Russian recordings seemed significantly inferior to ones from elsewhere, and many US recordings didn't really start to sound good enough (by modern standards) until the 1960s. The LP pressings didn't help in all cases, and unfortunately remastering some old recordings from tape doesn't really work as the tape has in many cases deteriorated badly.

I take the point about the authenticity of the sounds in the recordings coming through though, though whether composers really wanted such sounds or merely accepted them might be open to question.

[BBMmk2]

Cali, Sanderling has recorded the complete cycle hasn't he?

I always remember, how fantastic Previn's Shostakovich was. Especially the 4th, 5th and 8th!!