Shostakovich 5 - has Lenny ever been surpassed

[Barbirollians]

Perhaps it is the lurid LP cover - or maybe its association with being an LP bought through the no doubt long defunct Classical Selection Club ( I wonder is Britannia Music still around) but on listening tonight to its CD incarnation - can there be a more thrilling performance of this symphony?

[BBMmk2]

Yes.I always say that the LSO/Previn recording was one of the best!

[Panjandrum]

This fellow ain't too shabby.

[Ferretfancy]

Barbirollians,

I agree about the Lenny version, but I wonder how many recordings of Shostakovich 5 he made. My early CD was recorded in Tokyo with the NYPO and the recording date on the booklet is 1979. I think it's magnificent, but I have a feeling it's not his only version. It appears to be available on a more recent CD coupled with a Barshai performance of the C minor Chamber Symphony. My copy is just the symphony, short measure but marvellous, but I'm not sure if it's the same recording.

I don't remember the lurid LP cover, but the CD has a massive male torso from a Greek statue, rather fetching actually!

[Bryn]

The performance on this DVD:



Is pretty damned good, but the audio is only available in 5.1 or 2 Channel Dolby Digital. There's no LPCM option.

Oh, and the video quality is pretty poor, too.

Oops! I have just listened to/watched the DVD and,as with the Ives 2nd, he messes around with the end, stretching things out well beyond what the composer notated. A case of a hapeth of tar, I'm afraid.

[gradus]

Mr Stokowski was pretty fine in this too.

[Uncle Monty]

he messes around with the end, stretching things out well beyond what the composer notated. A case of a hapeth of tar, I'm afraid

Do you mean just slow tempo? I have it in the back of my mind that he was one who stuck to what seemed to be DDS's original intention, i.e. play the ending sequence at half the printed speed (original misprinted, apparently). I quite like it that way -- well, I like it either way, really. Last time I played it, the conductor took a vote as to which way we should do it! (A democratic conductor? Some mishtake, surely?!)

[umslopogaas]

I've got eleven versions of Shostakovich symph 5, all on LP (gulp, well he is one of my favourite composers and this is one of his most recorded works):

Previn/LSO
Rowicki/LSO
Skrowaczewski/Minneapolis SO
Svetlanov/USSR SO
Kondrashin/Moscow Phil. SO
Bernstein/NYPO (two copies, same recording but different covers)
Rowicki/Warsaw National PO
Silvestri/VPO
Mitropoulos/NYPSO
Mravinsky/Leningrad State Phil. Soc. SO
Maxim Shostakovich/USSR SO

Some famous names there (Mravinsky, Mitropoulos are sort of legendary), but if I had to vote for just one, I'd go for Previn and the LSO. Stokowski is, alas, one I havent got.

[Petrushka]

There is/was a recording available of Mravinsky and the Leningrad PO made in, I think, 1938 and last heard of on the DoReMi label. Has anyone got this as I'd be interested in any views on the performance and sound.

I have 17 versions on CD and I don't think any of them are perfect but my own first choice would be Concertgebouw/Haitink with the Leningrad PO and Mravinsky in one of their several incarnations for authenticity.

[Mahlerei]

Ashkenazy's RPO recording for Decca is pretty good too.

[Ferretfancy]

I've just realised that I have an earlier Bernstein NYPO recording of the 5th, coupled with the 9th. It dates from 1959, and I must compare it with the version recorded later in Tokyo which has great sound.

The Stokowski version with the Philadelphia dates from 20th April 1939, and is the first recording to be made outside the Soviet Union. His later NYPO (" Stadium SO") was made twenty years later. Artur Rodzinski gave the American premiere of the symphony, but apparently was not very impressed with it, and made some cuts for subsequent performances. Stokowski thought highly of the work, and this first recording sounds impressive in a good remastering by Dutton. He also gave the American premiere of the 6th and again made a first recording in December 1940, which is also on the Dutton CD.

What a great pioneer !

[Dave2002]

Do you mean just slow tempo? I have it in the back of my mind that he was one who stuck to what seemed to be DDS's original intention, i.e. play the ending sequence at half the printed speed (original misprinted, apparently). I quite like it that way -- well, I like it either way, really. Last time I played it, the conductor took a vote as to which way we should do it! (A democratic conductor? Some mishtake, surely?!)

Doesn't Mravinsky do it slowly? When I first heard it I thought it was odd, but after a while it's rather convincing. If there was a misprint in the published score that could explain this. I think it's not just about the speed though, but also about the rhythmic flexibility - or not. Sometimes in music I like some flexibility, but the ending of Shostakovich 5 works quite well if played rather rigidly, a sort of inevitable relentless grinding effect, perhaps not even with any relief. Maybe not everyone would like it that way though.

[rubbernecker]

Previn and the LSO for me too. On vinyl. One of the most amazing sounding LPs ever made. So good I have a backup copy. Goosebump city!

[johnb]

Doesn't Mravinsky do it slowly? When I first heard it I thought it was odd, but after a while it's rather convincing. If there was a misprint in the published score that could explain this.

I'm not sure that it has been conclusively shown that the original metronome marking of the closing pages was a misprint, even though the score was 'corrected' to give a more cheerful ending to the work. Bear in mind the dangerous times in which the work was written and how there is a deeply tragic undercurrent through the symphony. I think the final movement was Shostakovich's 'get out of jail' card, though with a sting in the tail (which was later softened, for whatever reason).

Rostropovich who, of course, knew Shostakovich used to conduct the 5th with the slower tempo for the closing pages, saying that they depicted forced rejoicing (you WILL rejoice, you WILL rejoice). Also Volkov in 'Testimony' quotes Shostakovich as saying:

The rejoicing is forced, created under threat, as in Boris Godunov. It's as if someone were beating you with a stick and saying, "Your business is rejoicing, your business is rejoicing," and you rise, shaky, and go marching off, muttering, "Our business is rejoicing, our business is rejoicing."

Having said that, I believe one has to treat Volkov's book with considerable caution.

[Tony.Haywood]

Having said that, I believe one has to treat Volkov's book with considerable caution.

You can say that again - much of it has been proved to be factual bunkum, though you wouldn't know it with how many times it's been quoted! It's a great read all the same, just needs to be taken with a pinch of salt.