Shostakovitch Symphony Nº 8

[umslopogaas]

#9 bbm, my local hifi shop has just ordered a Mravinsky CD for me, but since fhg tells us there is more than one, it will be interesting to see which one turns up!

[EnemyoftheStoat]

#9 bbm, my local hifi shop has just ordered a Mravinsky CD for me, but since fhg tells us there is more than one, it will be interesting to see which one turns up!

There are three, the 1961 radio recording on Praga, the 1960 sneezathon on Legends, and the 1982 one now on Regis. I have the Praga and Regis versions, as well as Jansons, Gergiev (Mariinsky), Previn (EMI), Barshai and Haitink. All have virtues and faults, but I reckon the Mravinskys do it for a genuine fear factor.

[cloughie]

There are three, the 1961 radio recording on Praga, the 1960 sneezathon on Legends, and the 1982 one now on Regis. I have the Praga and Regis versions, as well as Jansons, Gergiev (Mariinsky), Previn (EMI), Barshai and Haitink. All have virtues and faults, but I reckon the Mravinskys do it for a genuine fear factor.

What luxury to have a hifi shop, ever better one that sells CDs!

I have the sneezathon, together with a Mozart 33 - the performance beats the nasal irritation!

[umslopogaas]

Audio Destination in Tiverton, east Devon. They dont actually stock CDs, but will always order them. I expect they just use Amazon, which I could do myself, but I prefer to pay someone else to do it. If you want some high quality hifi, Mike Rogers is your man.

[Tevot]

The first recording I had of the 8th was Haitink's for Decca in the early 1980s. Years later I got the Brilliant Classics Box Set with Barshai and the WDR...

Haven't listened to either in a while. Currently got the Barshai on courtesy of Youtube

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JYpqi5QP9ng

Best Wishes,

Tevot

[maestro267]

It is a true masterpiece - pure excellence on every hearing. Which of Previn's LSO recordings did you listen to - his 1973 EMI Matrix, or the 1994 DG Classikon? The timings vary quite a bit between the two...

I didn't even know there were two recordings. I've just checked the CD book, and it's the 1973 recording.

[cloughie]

Audio Destination in Tiverton, east Devon. They dont actually stock CDs, but will always order them. I expect they just use Amazon, which I could do myself, but I prefer to pay someone else to do it. If you want some high quality hifi, Mike Rogers is your man.

Obviously not very local for me but not far off on an occasional trip up country if I'm seeking a new special item !
Enjoy your Mravinsky when it arrives.

[BBMmk2]

I've some good music friends in Tiverton!

[Richard Barrett]

Did it really take DSCH only 2 months to write this masterpiece ?

You'd be surprised at how little correlation there is between the time a composer spends on a work and the quality of the result! Shostakovich in any case wrote quite quickly most of the time. The basic skeleton of a piece like the 8th isn't so very complex, and he would have been able to orchestrate at great speed given his experience of writing film and ballet scores to order.

The 4th is my clear favourite among the Shostakovich symphonies, but following close behind are 8, 14 and 15. The 8th seems to me to at least as great an extent as any of the others a sort of stream of consciousness, constantly in and out of balance between tensions and resolutions, and, a little like with no.4, the endpoint seems exhaustingly hard-won and at the same time disturbingly precarious. Many would draw biographical inferences from something like that, but I feel what's going on as more universal than personal.

Recording? Kondrashin I think.

[BBMmk2]

The fourth movement of the 4th symphony, is mesmerising. Especially the last section, as it dies away.

[Richard Barrett]

The fourth movement of the 4th symphony

?

[Tony Halstead]

I didn't even know there were two recordings. I've just checked the CD book, and it's the 1973 recording.

Hmmm... I am very pleased to hear that.... on a personal level... as I was actually playing on it!
As you will probably know, it's terribly hard to 'step back' and to be objective about recordings that you have yourself been involved in. Nevertheless I do think (and thought so at the time) that this particular conductor had a very strong vision and identification with the piece. Perhaps it's his finest recorded achievement, apart from the beatific Vaughan Williams symphonies recordings.

[Beef Oven!]

The fourth movement of the 4th symphony, is mesmerising. Especially the last section, as it dies away.

That's the problem with downloading complete cycles of symphonies, sometimes.

[Petrushka]

My first live Shostakovich 8 was at the 1983 Proms with Haitink and the Concertgebouw, an absolutely stunning, unforgettable performance. Since then I've heard quite a few more live, from Rozhdestvensky, Gergiev, Sinaisky, Jurowski and Haitink again. My first recording was the 1973 Previn, still one of the finest around, which I bought in 1974 and I've had loads since. Sadly, the 1960 London Mravinsky is totally ruined by the coughing audience. Shameful.

There is another Tchaikovsky quote in the finale, this time from Swan Lake. It's so blatant and even scored, like the Tchaik, for the solo cello that it has to have some significance attached to it. Apart from the 50th anniversary of Tchaikovsky's death falling in 1943 have there been any guesses as to what this can mean? It might be just a coincidence but, as I say, it's so blatant it must mean something.

[richardfinegold]

My first live Shostakovich 8 was at the 1983 Proms with Haitink and the Concertgebouw, an absolutely stunning, unforgettable performance. Since then I've heard quite a few more live, from Rozhdestvensky, Gergiev, Sinaisky, Jurowski and Haitink again. My first recording was the 1973 Previn, still one of the finest around, which I bought in 1974 and I've had loads since. Sadly, the 1960 London Mravinsky is totally ruined by the coughing audience. Shameful.

There is another Tchaikovsky quote in the finale, this time from Swan Lake. It's so blatant and even scored, like the Tchaik, for the solo cello that it has to have some significance attached to it. Apart from the 50th anniversary of Tchaikovsky's death falling in 1943 have there been any guesses as to what this can mean? It might be just a coincidence but, as I say, it's so blatant it must mean something.

Hmm. White Swan/ Black Swan? Stalin as both the Leader of The Russian People and as their Scourge? I had thought that the 8Th was a Protest against all Totalitarianism.