Shostakovich Symphonies

[Richard Tarleton]

Richard:
Intriguing. I bumped into another Richard I knew at that DSCH 15th concert at RFS. Surely not one and the same?
You didn't work for a publisher in the early 70's by any chance?

No - not me

[HighlandDougie]

The siren voice of JLW has exerted its charms yet again ( "if you ever find it, buy it!") as Aulos set duly ordered from rather dodgy American website for slightly more than the Kondrashin (which is in Scotland, hence the justification for another copy for France). We'll see if it arrives. If nothing else, it has the indispensable performance of the 4th - I hope that Mario isn't put off by others' omission of this truly great work. If Mario isn't put off by downloads the Daniel Raiskin recording is still available for almost nothing from Amazon:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Symphony-No-4-C-minor-Op-43/dp/B005M1M18Q/ref=sr_1_1_digr?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1326189975&sr=1-1

A very fine performance - more subtle to my ears than Caetani (which arrived a couple of days ago - it certainly doesn't take any prisoners) but still thrilling

[Auferstehen2]

If Mario isn't put off by downloads the Daniel Raiskin recording is still available for almost nothing from Amazon

So help me God, if someone reminds me again, I shall go loopy! It makes me so angry every time!

Being a little island of some 17 x 9 miles, Malta cannot download from Amazon.

Sorry folks, but that book you read was wrong - size does matter!

Mario

[Auferstehen2]

Ungrateful, grumpy little so-and-so, aren't I?

Sorry HighlandDougie, my rant of course was not aimed at you, who was only trying to be helpful.

Apologies, and I will now go away to attempt to restore my equanimity.

Mario

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

I would suspect, if my past experiences with him is anything to go by, that Mravinsky would do serious justice to DSCH - how many of his symphonies did he record, can anyone tell me please?

I think (and these are the ones I have, so if anyone knows of any other, I'd be pleased to hear) there are recordings (many of them "Live" recordings taken from different concerts) of Nos 5, 6, 8, 10, 11 & 15, Mario. I had thought he'd done No 9 and that I had the Disc, but, if so, I can't find it today!

[HighlandDougie]

Mario

Message me your address and I'll post a burned (should that be burnt?) copy of the Raiskin to you. Amazon download so rights-free and legal.

HD

[umslopogaas]

#50 ferneyhoughgeliebte, you beat me to it by a whisker! I have just been going through my recordings and came to the same conclusion, but can add one more: symphony 12. I cant actually answer Auferstehen2's question (#39) definitively, I've no idea how much of Mravinsky's total recorded output (which is very large) I have acquired over the years, but probably only a small fraction. Of the Shostakovich symphonies, I have:

5 Russian Melodiya LP
6 English HMV/Melodiya and CD BMG Mravinsky edition vol. 9
8 CD BMG Mravinksy edition vol. 17
10 CD BMG Mravinsky edition vol. 9
11 Russian Melodiya LP
12 English HMV/Melodiya LP
15 CD BMG Mravinsky edition vol. 3

I dont know how far the BMG Mravinsky edition went, but vol. 17 lists vols. 1 - 20, giving only the composers featured, not their works. Apart from vols. 3, 9 and 17 already mentioned, there are works by Shostakovich listed on vols. 15 and 16: anyone know what they are?

Looking through my discs of the symphonies, I am impressed by the roster of conductors. A fine list of the great, good, neglected and utterly unknown. Apart from the central cast of Kondrashin, Mravinsky, Svetlanov, Haitink, Ormandy, there are recordings by (in no particular order):

Previn, Bernstein, Ancerl, Stokowski, Golschmann, Slovak, Blazhkov, Rozhdestvensky, Gould, Mitropoulos, Silvestri, Rowicki, Skrowaczewski, Neumann, Berglund, Nekludov, Karajan, Kurz, Cluytens, Pretre, Rostropovich, Barshai and Maxim Shostakovich.

This may just reflect the limitations of my knowledge rather than their tastes, but there are some names there that I would not associate with Shostakovich: Cluytens, Karajan, Berglund, for example, each in just one symphony. Not so surprising that Karajan would pick the tenth, because it is among the most popular, but why Berglund should pick the seventh, or Cluytens the eleventh, seems to me to be a bit of mystery.

[Nick Armstrong]

The siren voice of JLW has exerted its charms yet again ( "if you ever find it, buy it!") as Aulos set duly ordered from rather dodgy American website for slightly more than the Kondrashin (which is in Scotland, hence the justification for another copy for France). We'll see if it arrives. If nothing else, it has the indispensable performance of the 4th - I hope that Mario isn't put off by others' omission of this truly great work. If Mario isn't put off by downloads the Daniel Raiskin recording is still available for almost nothing from Amazon:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Symphony-No-4-C-minor-Op-43/dp/B005M1M18Q/ref=sr_1_1_digr?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1326189975&sr=1-1

A very fine performance - more subtle to my ears than Caetani (which arrived a couple of days ago - it certainly doesn't take any prisoners) but still thrilling

HD thanks - could that download be my way into the 4th? I'd be silly not to try, at that price, I guess... But the indispensable performance is the Kondrashin, is it?

[Nick Armstrong]

(but I do have a mental block over hearing sung Russian).

Well, that's hardly a problem with 4, though, is it?

Obviously. I was talking about 13th, but it was ambiguous I grant you.

Which performance of No 4 would you rate most highly?

[HighlandDougie]

Caliban

I'd say that the Raiskin performance is an excellent way into the 4th. If you PM me your address, I'll burn a copy for you too (I'm supposed to be going to London tomorrow so can post it while I'm there).

HD

[Bryn]

Amazon download so rights-free and legal.

HD

Where on Earth did you get that idea from? Try telling that to the judge.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=200285010#content

[HighlandDougie]

Bryn

Oops! Well now I know - thanks for that.

HD

[Auferstehen2]

Curses!

Don't you ever get tired of always being right, Bryn?



Mario

[HighlandDougie]

My offer therefore, alas, officially withdrawn. It was seriously naive of me to think that Amazon (and the others) would just roll over and happily allow mass copying. I think that all the sun here in the A-M has addled my brain....

[ahinton]

Obviously. I was talking about 13th, but it was ambiguous I grant you.

Which performance of No 4 would you rate most highly?

There have been so many in the half century since it was first performed in its orchestral form that it's hard to say and I've ertainly not listened to all of them. One of the most successful in many ways was Previn around 40 years ago; many conductors tend to take the big "unperoration" near its close just too fast, with the result that the repeated figuresthat pass between each of the two timpanists tend to get too muffled in the general texture and the whole lacks necessary schwung, but Previn seemed to get this just about right. Taken at a whisker below dotted minim = 50 this passage works really well for this and the coda that follows - and the tempo is supposed in any case to remain consistent from the big C major outburst right to the close of the symphony. One to avoid absolutely (although I'm not sre if it was ever recorded) was a performance that I heard conducted by Lazarev in which the coda was taken at little more than half speed with accents on the third beat of each bar that made what's otherwise a most devastating conclusion sound like an absurdly lumpen caricature.