BaL 11.12.21 - Shostakovich: Symphony no. 7 "Leningrad"

**jayne lee wilson** · 22-11-21, 13:54

OH....MY.... GOD.......

How can anyone listen to multiple versions of..... THIS?

A life-changing experience for me when I first got to know it (R3, BBCPO/Edward Downes, live, taped off air...)...
Two (almost literally) heart-stopping live performances with Petrenko at the RLPO....

7 is the first in the DSCH "War Symphony Trilogy". I adore it, almost every bar of it, but.... could I ever listen to it again, unless - in my head?

**Eine Alpensinfonie** · 22-11-21, 13:59

My initial reaction was to ascertain how the reviewer will drop Jurowski's name into the review.

**Pianoman** · 22-11-21, 14:54

Surely it'll be Bernstein/ Chicago knowing Seckerson...
Personally, i'll stick to the swifter renditions, namely Jarvi (Father or son...)

**Petrushka** · 22-11-21, 14:57

I've got many recordings on my shelves but it's the live performances that stand out in my mind. My first was at the 1983 Proms, BBC PO/Downes, (wonder if that's the one JLW mentions?); an unforgettable one in Symphony Hall, Birmingham, in 1993 with Jansons and the St Petersburg PO, when I shared a table in the cafe with members of the horn section of the orchestra before the concert; Gergiev and the World Orchestra for Peace at the 1998 Proms, seated in 'O' stalls, almost in the orchestra, an overwhelming experience; LSO/Rostropovich, also in 1998, the same day I attended Solti's memorial service in Westminster Abbey.

On record my first was the Bournemouth SO/Berglund, still sounding very good in its CD incarnation but you really need to go the full Soviet for this symphony and, despite less than ideal sonics I'd go for the USSR SO/Svetlanov, either the 1960s Melodiya, or a live one in 1978 both of which are/were available on the Scribendum label, and which I'm surprised to see are absent from Alpie's listing. I also wouldn't be without the USSR Ministry of Culture Orch/Rozhdestvensky which could well blow your speakers as well as your mind.

Ultimately, for the best sound coupled with a top performance I'd be looking at the Chicago SO/Bernstein which is far more involved than the latest Nelsons which I found disappointing.

**silvestrione** · 22-11-21, 15:23

I like Shostakovich, but...

However, I will listen, because sometimes you find with these BALs you get a breakthrough with a work you can't take.

**visualnickmos** · 22-11-21, 15:41

This is going to be good..... I hope!

**Bryn** · 22-11-21, 15:52

I hope Wigglesworth gets a look-in.

Mark's notes on Shostakovich Symphony No. 7 - Mark Wigglesworth

https://www.markwigglesworth.com/notes/marks-notes-on-shostakovich-symphony-no-7/

Resistance The lowest estimate for the number of Soviet people murdered for political reasons between 1928 and 1941 is 7.9 million. Some people claim that Stalin was responsible for as many as three times that number of deaths. The ultimate horror is, in fact, that nobody will ever know. Stalin’s grip on power […]

**LeMartinPecheur** · 22-11-21, 18:22

Some useful background reading https://www.amazon.co.uk/Leningrad-S...7605237&sr=1-1 (if you like nightmares...).

**pastoralguy** · 22-11-21, 20:31

Regarding the SNO/Jarvi recording on Chandos, I remember hearing the work for the first time in the Usher Hall before the cd was made. Iirc, Jarvi had 4 side drummers playing at the climax of the first movement. I really feared for the Usher Hall’s ceiling! Unbelievably exciting!

The orchestra played it on four occasions. Dundee, Aberdeen, Glasgow and Edinburgh. My teacher was a violinist in the orchestra and he told me that each performance got progressively faster as Jarvi was keen that it would fit on a single cd!

**Bryn** · 22-11-21, 20:37

How is it that the BBC has not found a way to release one of its recordings of Edward Downes conducting this work of which he was such a strong advocate?

**richardfinegold** · 22-11-21, 22:57

There is a Sanderling recording…unfortunately pere. Oh well.
I have multiple versions. My personal favorite is Lenny from Chicago, but that stems from hearing a radio broadcast cast roughly contemporaneous with the recording. I would love to see that tape surface.
I heard this performed at my University days with Yuri Temirkanov leading one of those weirdly named Soviet Bands, something like The Peoples All Union Collective Farm Tractor Symphony Orchestra. The Invasion Theme blew me away but I had not yet learned to appreciate the rest of the work, and smoking funny tobacco before a long Shostakovich Symphony isn’t to be recommended . One truly great rendition is Ancerl on Supraphon, regrettably in relatively dim mono, but if ever a version sounded like an indictment of all Totalitarianism, not just the National Socialist variety, this is it.
I just finished a great novel called City of Thieves. It’s a bromance set during the siege of Leningrad, both entertaining and hair raising. The protagonists did not have very kind words for DSCH

**Edgy 2** · 22-11-21, 23:27

Chicago/Bernstein and Halle/Elder for me

**vibratoforever** · 23-11-21, 01:02

Originally posted by Bryn View Post

How is it that the BBC has not found a way to release one of its recordings of Edward Downes conducting this work of which he was such a strong advocate?

Agree completely! Not sure where I got a copy from, probably Youtube

**richardfinegold** · 23-11-21, 01:39

I discovered an iTunes download of Berglund/Bournemouth. . It sounds perfectly fine to me, somehow less subjectively Slavic than the norm. My personal favorite besides Bernstein/Chicago is Kitaenko/Gurzenich SO of Cologne. Not only is it spectacularly recorded (Mine is SACD, but available for years as a High Resolution download), but there is something about the mix of a Russian Conductor raised in the USSR leading a German Orchestra that I find compelling. Barshai with the same Orchestra is equally riveting but less beautifully recorded, but very inexpensive to purchase.
So-what would it take to make a bad recording? The over the toppery is built into the music. It is so heart on sleeve that even Stokowski (another bad sounding mono) sounds non plussed, as in “How can I personally put my stamp on this?” I was prepared to criticize the Bournemouth for not being in the same league as the CSO, et. al, but that isn’t the case. Perhaps the Royal Liverpool sounds a bit outclassed in Petrenko’s recording, but if it had to be my only recording of the piece it would make do. So Orchestral execution isn’t the issue ( didn’t Beecham once say he was in favor of Orchestral Execution?). You can’t possibly over emote here. Can you fail by attempting to neuter it? I don’t think that can be done.
The Forumite That Used To Be Known As Caliban and I once had an exchange about the Seventh after I attended a CSO concert led by Semyon Bychkov (I think). Pre concert we had supped at a venerable German restaurant. After consuming sauerbraten and kraut I became uncomfortable and flatulent during the performance but I related to Nick that due to the noise level in I my distress went unnoticed. Nick said “Well, the piece was written to withstand a German bombardment “. I now remember that every time the subject of the Symphony appeat

BaL 11.12.21 - Shostakovich: Symphony no. 7 "Leningrad"

BaL 11.12.21 - Shostakovich: Symphony no. 7 "Leningrad"

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