BaL 29.06.13 - Shostakovich Symphony. No. 5

[BBMmk2]

Previn didnt get a mention but he's not on the list in #1, so presumbably RCA have not transferred him from the LP. Pity, I've got the LP and as I recall it is very good.

Oh, I played that recording to death!!

[gradus]

Whatever happened to the Stokowski Stadium Sym orch (NY Phil)recording. Not even a mention, surely shome mishtake?

[pastoralguy]

Previn is a remarkable musician who I sometimes feel is looked down on by classical music lovers because of his more popular music making.

Quite agree, umpi. I regard Previn as my musical 'Godfather' since his 'Music Night' in the 70's was what drew me in to classical music.

[jayne lee wilson]

Those upset at the cost of 2ndhand VPO/Jansons CDs may take consolation from David Gutman's very equivocal Gramophone reviews of it (Awards 1997 and 11/2006)... 1997:"Setting a course somewhere between Sanderling's grey-faced stoicism and Bernstein's relentless exposure of nerve-endings"..."Tight technical control, imparting rather less in the way of inner character... maximal rhythmic clarity, smooth legato lines...extreme dynamic contrasts"..."cavernous and a little occluded in the bass"... 2006: "The 5th sounds too Viennese altogether, but then an earlier Oslo account was no better" (!).

Gutman's usually very reliable on DSCH reviews, tending to favour Kondrashin but recognising the subtler qualities of Sanderling, or Maxim Shostakovich's Prague SO Cycle (which I think is very sober but underrated, with an outstanding 15th). Listening to the Sanderling/Berlin SO 5th again I'm even more impressed - the largo is just devastating.

I think fhg's comments about the DSCH 5th as a "critique" of the tragedy-to-triumph type of symphony are spot-on. But of course this needn't mean DSCH is being selfconsciously postmodernist, as the 5th is a direct and honest reaction to the terror and complexity of his (and Russia's) situation. It really does the 5th a disservice to see it as a darkness-to-light piece; too much fear and anguish, even hysteria, in the outer movements; the oddly pompous jollity of the allegretto, the largo's lacerating tragedy... these extemes are worlds away from Beethoven 5, Brahms 1, Mahler 5 (never mind Mahler 3's broad, visionary canvas of Myth and Nature).
It's a very personal statement. Recently I tried to describe the DSCH cycle with brief characterisation of each piece (on the "what are you listening to thread") and with the DSCH 4,5 and 6 I simply put "Autobiography Chapters 1,2 and 3". (Whereas 7-9 were "War Symphonies 1-3"). I still think its a reasonable place to start!

With Shostakovich's admiration of the Bernstein - he may have liked a reading that emphasised defiance over bitterness, or of course simply enjoyed the brilliance of execution - as any composer might!

[umslopogaas]

#77 gradus, "whatever happened to Stokowski ...?" Dunno, he is on my CD shelves, but no-one asked for a loan. Perhaps he's no longer available? (Philips Legendary Classics, Shostakovich symph. 5, Scriabin Poeme de l' Ecstase, NY Stadium SO, cond. Stokowski, code Philips 422 306-2).

Your post actually had me checking the LP shelves for a copy, but I found I was confusing Stokowski with Mitropoulos: Columbia ML 4739, DSCH Symh. 5, Philharmonic-Symph. O. NY, cond. Dimitri Mitropoulos. Wonderful stuff, back in the dawn of the LP era.

[Petrushka]

Those upset at the cost of 2ndhand VPO/Jansons CDs may take consolation from David Gutman's very equivocal Gramophone reviews of it (Awards 1997 and 11/2006)... 1997:"Setting a course somewhere between Sanderling's grey-faced stoicism and Bernstein's relentless exposure of nerve-endings"..."Tight technical control, imparting rather less in the way of inner character... maximal rhythmic clarity, smooth legato lines...extreme dynamic contrasts"..."cavernous and a little occluded in the bass"... 2006: "The 5th sounds too Viennese altogether, but then an earlier Oslo account was no better" (!).

Glad to see that my memory isn't playing me entirely false. I bought this CD when it came out in 1997 and doubt if it has had more than three or four hearings since. Haitink, Kondrashin, Mravinsky, Sanderling, Ancerl and Rozhdestvensky are all much to be preferred, in my view.

[Bryn]

Did Mark Wigglesworth get a mention? If not, why not? His is a very compelling reading.

[Karafan]

Oh dear, silly money if like me you don't do downloads http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_...hony+5+jansons

Am I missing something here, MLP? Isn't it easier just to plump for the set? http://www.amazon.co.uk/Shostakovich...=cm_cr_pr_pb_t

K.

[Petrushka]

Am I missing something here, MLP? Isn't it easier just to plump for the set? http://www.amazon.co.uk/Shostakovich...=cm_cr_pr_pb_t

I suppose it is if you want the other 14 as well but, to be honest, I've never been greatly enthused by Jansons DSCH on CD. His live performances are a different matter, though. Others have greater claims on our hard-earned cash.

[gurnemanz]

I suppose it is if you want the other 14 as well but, to be honest, I've never been greatly enthused by Jansons DSCH on CD. His live performances are a different matter, though. Others have greater claims on our hard-earned cash.

Also on this bundle. To be found cheaper elsewhere.

[seabright]

Whatever happened to the Stokowski Stadium Sym orch (NY Phil)recording. Not even a mention, surely shome mishtake?

There was also no mention of Stokowski's gripping 1964 Proms performance with the LSO, issued on a BBC Legends CD coupled with the Vaughan Williams 8th that he and the BBC SO had played there a couple of days earlier. I just googled for a review and here's what Edward Greenfield wrote in the Guardian:

"These two live performances, recorded in the Royal Albert Hall in the 1964 Prom season, vividly demonstrate that even in his 80s Leopold Stokowski had few rivals in inspiring performances of the highest voltage. The Shostakovich Fifth Symphony was his favourite, and here the biting tensions of the opening are masterfully contrasted with the pure, sinuous lines of the second subject in a performance of exceptional refinement and dedication.

The transformation of the Vaughan Williams Eighth Symphony is even more striking. This is generally counted as one of the composer's more relaxed symphonies - it was written when he was 83 - yet Stokowski finds a power and bite in the writing that recall the dramatic thrust of the chilling Sixth Symphony. The BBC Symphony players are magnetised, just as their LSO colleagues are in the Shostakovich."

Since Geoffrey Norris couldn't possibly have listened to every recording ever made of the Shostakovich 5th, starting with the the pre-war 78s that Stokowski made with the Philadelphia Orchestra (the work's first American recording, reissued on Pearl) one wonders how many other excellent performances he igonored that might have been even better than the ones he included.

[BBMmk2]

Quite agree, umpi. I regard Previn as my musical 'Godfather' since his 'Music Night' in the 70's was what drew me in to classical music.

Likewise, PG! I regard him as my classical music mentor! Especially with those Music Nights programmes.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Since Geoffrey Norris couldn't possibly have listened to every recording ever made of the Shostakovich 5th, starting with the the pre-war 78s that Stokowski made with the Philadelphia Orchestra (the work's first American recording, reissued on Pearl) one wonders how many other excellent performances he igonored that might have been even better than the ones he included.

Well, Norris has been writing about 20th Century Russian Music since the 1970s, so he's probably heard more recordings than most of us. I think it's more a case that he demonstrated what, for want of a better expression, might be described as an "English gentlemanly" approach to his choices (nothing too extreme, well-balanced, decent, expertly played) - not that there is anything reprehensible in such an approach, but it does rather limit what he might find "recommendable". The excerpts from the chosen recording showed that it has many excellent qualities, and is a perfectly "safe" recommendation - but the excerpt from the final bars demonstrated what I would probably find "lacking" on repeated playings: rather than playing what's written (Bass Drum fff, the rest of the orchestra ff cresc), Jansons homogenises the dynamics, so the Drum is no louder than the others, and follows their crescendo so that the dynamic the composer requires is only reached on the final note. This makes an "effective" conclusion, and is probably safer for the living room loudspeakers; but it's timid in comparison with what the score says.

[verismissimo]

One thing I thought that GN got right (ie he agrees with me) was that it's the slow movement that is the "emotional heart" of this symphony.

[BBMmk2]

One thing I thought that GN got right (ie he agrees with me) was that it's the slow movement that is the "emotional heart" of this symphony.

Very true, which is why, I have the feeling that Andre Previn, took it at a much slower pace than most conductors.