BaL 11.10.14 - Shostakovich: Symphony no. 10 in E minor

[Bryn]

Just a slightly OT reminder that the Shostakovich/Weinberg recording of the piano duet version is to be found on Youtube. The CD issue is hard to find, and rather expensive.

[Petrushka]

The Mravinsky is very taut, but be prepared for audience noise.

We might complain about our Proms audiences but the noise coming from Moscow and Leningrad in live recordings is abominable. Have you heard the Russian Disc recording of the 1957 premiere of the DSCH 11? It is unlistenable thanks to the horribly intrusive racket from the audience. The Moscow audience were well behaved when I was there in 1979.

[Barbirollians]

For me, it's still Jarvi and the (R)SNO. I remember the concert that preceded the recording and it was shattering.

Seconded .

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

What's the Mrav like fhg? I don't know it at all. How would it compare with, say, the Barshai (which I do know)?

One of the very best performances - the sound (I have the SAGA CD version from the early '90s) less impressive; a bit tinny, and with a rather phlegmatic (!) live audience. The MONO sound on the Mitropoulos recording from the '50s (another recording I own!) is actually clearer. But Mravinsky and the Leningraders are truly "Live": the sparks come out of the speakers, just astonishing playing. Barshai is excellent, but immediately after hearing Mravinsky, even he sounds tame in comparison: a totally unfair comment that only works in the unreal universe of side-by-side comparisons such as this.

[Bryn]

The Mravinsky (on a Saga LP) was my introduction to the work, back in the mid-60s.

The second and third movements of the Shostakovich/Weinberg recording turn out to be available on a somewhat obscure album available for download from Qobuz, "Creators - Composers Playing Their Own Works at the Piano, Vol. 7".

[amateur51]

We might complain about our Proms audiences but the noise coming from Moscow and Leningrad in live recordings is abominable. Have you heard the Russian Disc recording of the 1957 premiere of the DSCH 11? It is unlistenable thanks to the horribly intrusive racket from the audience. The Moscow audience were well behaved when I was there in 1979.

Your reputation preceded you, Pet?

[pastoralguy]

...Composers Playing Their Own Works at the Piano, Vol. 7".

Is there a Beethoven 'Pastoral' available...?

[Tapiola]

One of the very best performances - the sound (I have the SAGA CD version from the early '90s) less impressive; a bit tinny, and with a rather phlegmatic (!) live audience. The MONO sound on the Mitropoulos recording from the '50s (another recording I own!) is actually clearer. But Mravinsky and the Leningraders are truly "Live": the sparks come out of the speakers, just astonishing playing. Barshai is excellent, but immediately after hearing Mravinsky, even he sounds tame in comparison: a totally unfair comment that only works in the unreal universe of side-by-side comparisons such as this.

Thanks fhg! And point taken about the falsity of making such comparisons (it was a rather silly late-night question from me anyway). [As an aside, I have Mravinsky in 5 and 8 (both from 1982) and the playing on both is tight, tense and alive with the conductor in full and magisterial control].

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

The complete symphonies box is available

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Shostakovich-Complete-Symphonies-Kondrashin/dp/B000IONEZG/ref=sr_1_2?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1412372398&sr=1-2&keywords=shostakovich+kondrashin

And the 10th alone is available as a download http://www.amazon.co.uk/Shostakovich...+10+kondrashin

I'd say this counted as 'available'.

Thanks Petrushka and Bryn. That definitely counts.

[silvestrione]

Yes - one of them a Live performance in Moscow, ending with audience applause - including that of the composer.

A common misconception. BPO/Karajan performed the symphony in Leningrad and Moscow. The latter was recorded; the former was the one where Shostakovich was present.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

A common misconception.

I've been called worse things - and with less accuracy.

BPO/Karajan performed the symphony in Leningrad and Moscow. The latter was recorded; the former was the one where Shostakovich was present.

Many thanks for the correction

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

One of the very best performances - the sound (I have the SAGA CD version from the early '90s) less impressive; a bit tinny, and with a rather phlegmatic (!) live audience. The MONO sound on the Mitropoulos recording from the '50s (another recording I own!) is actually clearer. But Mravinsky and the Leningraders are truly "Live": the sparks come out of the speakers, just astonishing playing. Barshai is excellent, but immediately after hearing Mravinsky, even he sounds tame in comparison: a totally unfair comment that only works in the unreal universe of side-by-side comparisons such as this.

I played this CD earlier - and there's no audience! I think it's a Studio recording (and that I was thinking of the RFH #8 on BBC Classics - the London audience giving their Soviet contemporaries a run for their money in the "I didn't bring a hanky" stakes) - but the sound is as tinny on SAGA as I'd remembered, and with a good deal of tape hiss, distortion and feeble bass - and there's some dodgy intonation in the woodwinds (curiously, in the slower, technically "easier" moments). Not exactly a glowing summary is it? And yet, and yet, and yet ... no other performance is quite so chillingly terrifying as this one: there are moments where the sound grabs hold of the microphones by the throat and dares them to add distortion to this bit. The power, the fire ... the moments of nervous tenderness; unmissable in spite of obvious flaws. I doubt that SJ will give this the laurels (nor would I) - but this performance of this work is a classic of recording history. Phew!

[visualnickmos]

Ormandy/Philadelphia and (and surprising myself, hugely here!) Karajan/BPO recorded in 1967 are both excellent.

[Petrushka]

There is also a Leningrad PO/Mravinsky recording from 1976 which was released on the Erato label and this is the one I have, It's a good while since I last heard it so I remember little of it but am assuming this is a different recording from that mentioned by Ferney?

There can be some confusion in separating out the various versions emanating from Mravinsky and others. For example, Tapiola mentioned a version by Rozhdestvensky but there are two: the USSR Ministry of Culture Symphony Orchestra issued on the Olympia label undated but a blistering studio account and a live performance from the same orchestra given in April 1982 and issued on Brilliant Classics. The latter is afflicted by yet another bronchial audience and I gave up after the first movement.

The Olympia issue is a stunning account and would be on my short list assuming it's general availability. This is the one I have: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Shostakovich...rozhdestvensky

Karajan somehow manages in all three of his accounts to conjure up a feeling of mounting terror and fear in the first movement such as no-one else quite manages. It's very similar in effect to what he does in his VPO recording of Mars in the Planets and both are chilling.

[Beef Oven!]

I have long enjoyed:

Maxim Shostakovich - LSO, Collins.
Broad, but intense.

Herbert von Karajan - BPO, 1980, digital. Deutsche Grammophon.
This is my favourite.

Herbert von Karajan - BPO, Live In Moscow. Melodiya.
At once, seering and refined.

Rudolf Barshai - WDR Symphony Orchestra Cologne. Brilliant Classics.
Barshai enjoyed a close association with DSCH over many years, which may or may not have anything to do with why Barshai has given us so many splendid performances of the man's work.

I have listened to Mravinsky and Kondrashin, and although they give tremendous performances, I feel no pressure to add to my shelves (especially as Karajan's 1980 account is so compelling).