Essential Shostakovich Discs

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Really?!
I didn't know that and presumed it was another recording fad. Not suitable for under 16s, eh? Probably due to the poetry in no. 15!

14? 13?

Here, in the inimitable style of Google translation is the relevant law:

Article 10. Information products for children under the age of sixteen years
To be admitted to circulation of information products for children under the age of sixteen, may be classified information products provided for in Article 9 of this Federal Law, as well as information products containing justified its genre and (or) storyline:
1) image or description of the accident, accident, accident, illness, death without the naturalistic show their effects, which can cause children fear, terror or panic;
2) an image or depiction of cruelty and (or) violence (except sexual assault) without naturalistic display of deprivation of the life process or mutilation provided that expresses compassion for the victim, and (or) negative, judgmental attitude toward cruelty and violence (except for violence used in cases of protection of citizens' rights and legally protected interests of society or the state);
3) information on narcotic drugs or psychotropic and (or) an intoxicating substances (without demonstration), the dangerous consequences of their consumption with the demonstration of such cases, provided that expressed negative or judgmental attitude to such drugs or substances and provides an indication of the the risk of their use;
4) some swear words and (or) the expression, non-swearing;
5) Do not use interest in sex and not of offensive image or description of sexual relations between men and women, except for images or descriptions of sexual acts.

[jayne lee wilson]

The 110th Anniversary Edition was delivered to my neighbours yesterday while I was rehearsing for last nights Cafe OTO event. I collected it from them this morning and am happy to report that I am now pleased I was unable to cancel the order. Melodiya have now learned from the mistake of the horribly flimsy Soviet era style boxing used for the Kondrashin and Borodin Quartet sets. This time we get a decent Digipak® style case for each disc (or pair of discs in the case of 11 and 12) and a 128 page hardback booklet in Russian and English (around 50 or so pages in each language, plus a selection of photographs of the composer and some of the key musicians involved in the recordings), all housed in a tough card box. Now to start listening to them.

Glad to hear about the deluxe packaging. That 2006-issue Kondrashin intégrale was a collectors item wasn't it? Not in a good way. You had to watch yourself every time you gingered it out from the shelf as the cardboard sleeves fell amok. Lovely cream & black artwork, different for each CD, though. The Aulos box was astounding: solid, heavy thick card with a magnetic closer. An OTT luxe effect rather spoiled by the bizarrely translated English in the booklet....

A bit word-blind this early in the day, I've just noticed what you said about the re-re-masters of Kondrashin and others in the new set. Well, how very vexing... I had thought there was no need of it, given at least 10 of the performances would be duple- or triplication (I have the Aulos and the Melodiya KK issues already.. )..... still it does make the box more worthwhile for anyone investing.

[jayne lee wilson]

ABOUT "RUSSIAN SHOSTAKOVICH"....

Delius with Beecham and the Royal Phil; Vaughn Williams with Handley in Liverpool, or with Barbirolli and the Halle in Manchester; Boult and the London Phil in Elgar….

Copland on the New York Phil with Bernstein, Dvorak and Martinu sung and danced by the Czech Phil, the Prague RSO or SO; French music in Paris - Roussel on the Lamoureux with Munch, Martinon with the ORTF playing Roussel, Ravel and Debussy….
Bruckner with Knappertsbusch and Furtwangler, the Vienna and Berlin orchestras of the 40s and 50s….

So - Shostakovich in Moscow or Leningrad.

All of these have something beyond technical excellence, fine recorded balances, musical sensitivity and subtlety of expression; some of them even sound distorted or compressed, the ensemble imperfect, under-rehearsed, even slipshod.

They tell us something that the classical orchestral diaspora cannot; easier to hear than to articulate, that instinctive response to the source, of how the music came to sound and how it should move; from folksong, popular song, marches and dances; how local musical traditions came to shape, almost physically, the instruments and the people who play them. Singing out through the body of the music.

Call it “idiomatic” - IDIOS - something owned, private, even secret; but then GIVEN, in concert, to us all.
We say it’s “in the blood” of these performers; a spiritus loci, like landscape and cityscape and speech becoming song; a collective memory shared by the players, the creator, the local audience.
You can enjoy, and understand, the music without it - other orchestras may play it more precisely, more beautifully - but your understanding, instinctive or comparative, will be incomplete.

You may need to saturate yourself in it, forsaking all other, to hear what it has to say to you.

[Bryn]

... Any technical details about the mastering?

Frayed knot, just a name credit for the various re-mastering engineers, different from those credited in the Melodiya Kondrashin set. The Melodiya Mravinsky set re-masterimg was credited to "NoNoise", but those in the new box are credited to specific engineers, and I doubt the eclipsed NoNoise had anything to do with them.

[EnemyoftheStoat]

Previn & the LSO re-recorded the work for DG in 1994:

http://www.deutschegrammophon.com/gb/cat/4378192

... I've not heard it, either. Some enthusiastic comments on Amazon, FWTW.

I acquired it - the DGG 8th that is - at a time when the EMI 8th was unavailable. It's not a patch on the earlier recording, which is I think the pick of Previn's LSO DSCH.

[EnemyoftheStoat]

There was never a complete Sanderling DSCH cycle (that really would be buried treasure - well apart from 15 of course...). AFAIK, All we have are the often-reissued Berlin Classics/Edel Berlin SO recordings of 1,5,6,8,10 and 15; the Swedish RSO of No.8; the French NO one of No.10; a 15th in Cleveland; finally that live Philharmoniker 15th.

Some us have the RCO 5th - either in the 152-box set or the individual volume 6 of the series. Ah, I seem to have both, how careless!

[Bryn]

Some us have the RCO 5th - either in the 152-box set or the individual volume 6 of the series. Ah, I seem to have both, how careless!

Ditto. Must put Vol. 6 up for sale some time.

[EnemyoftheStoat]

Ditto. Must put Vol. 6 up for sale some time.

I'll see you that and raise you vol 7. Just been digging into the big box and there's a terrific Bernie DSCH10 from 1985. Sounds like they forget they're a Dutch band.

[Bryn]

I'll see you that and raise you vol 7. Just been digging into the big box and there's a terrific Bernie DSCH10 from 1985. Sounds like they forget they're a Dutch band.

There is indeed. What I don't have is my own separate Vol. 1, though I do have one on long term loan which I must get back in touch with the owner of to return. Neither do I have separate boxes of a couple of the conductor sets. I remember when I ordered the big box that I expected to sell the individual boxes to cover the cost. I have yet to put that plan into action. The big box is such a wonderful Aladdin's cave.

[Dave2002]

The currently playing - http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b08dnqcr - String Quartet 8 played by the Borodin Quartet seems pretty essential to me. There may be other very good versions, but this is certainly one of the best, and has historical claims to be essential.

[Bryn]

From the new Melodiya box I have been listening to Symphonies 5 (Svetlanov) and 6 (Kondrashin) this morning. The Svetlanov was new to me. I found the (studio) performance intriguing (in a good way) but the recording rather distracting (aspects of Phase 4, with its spotlighting and layering). The string sound was also rather fierce and metallic. The Kondrashin is an 'old friend', fresh out of the shower, as it were. Now Svetlanov again, this time in the 'Leningrad'. Much happier with the recording regime this time, the performance up there with those of Ted Downes.

[cloughie]

The currently playing - http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b08dnqcr - String Quartet 8 played by the Borodin Quartet seems pretty essential to me. There may be other very good versions, but this is certainly one of the best, and has historical claims to be essential.

Is that the one that was coupled with Borodin's SQ2 on Ace of Diamonds?

[Dave2002]

Is that the one that was coupled with Borodin's SQ2 on Ace of Diamonds?

I don't know. If we are going to discuss authenticity there may be several versions by the 'Borodin' quartet, which itself may not always be/have been the quartet which Shostakovich knew and heard in the 1960s (I'll have to check ...). According to the playlist it might have been a Decca recording, but what the recording date was I don't know. There is a partial set of quartets by the Borodin Quartet on Virgin - under a tenner from Amazon.

See this about the history of the Borodin Quartet - http://borodinquartet.com/legacy/

Like a flowing river, it isn't/hasn't always been the same.

If you have the Ace of Diamonds version it may be the quartet which Shostakovich knew, being from the approximate period. I may have an LP somewhere. Newer remakes by the nominally the same quartet may have less of a historical claim to links to the composer.

[BBMmk2]

I would have thought it would have been the Fitzwilliam Quartet who were the most authentic ensemble for these works?

[richardfinegold]

I would have thought it would have been the Fitzwilliam Quartet who were the most authentic ensemble for these works?

Most of them were premiered by the Beethoven Quartet, but the composer did work with the Fitzwilliams