Shostakovich: which one is your favourite amongst his works?

[HighlandDougie]

Kondrashin, Kondrashin and Kondrashin. Moscow PO, Dresden Staatskapelle and Concertgebouw, the last, alas, only available in the unavailable Volume 4 of the RCO Anthology: the original Moscow recording in its Melodiya or Aulos re-mastering (not in the primitive-sounding i-Tunes download). Raiskin is a cheap and very good download choice; Caetani well worth hearing. Ditto Salonen - and Wigglesworth (the best recorded of the lot). By comparison, Haitink sounds a bit tame (and I found his CSO issue to be something of a disappointment but I must listen again). Previn and Rattle - and Chung - all have their merits (as does Barshai - and Gergiev) but, IMUO, no-one beats the great KK in this ever-astonishing work. I seem to have a lot of recordings of it but I keep coming back to him - shattering, visceral, gripping and that coda - if ever there was a warning writ large in music, it has to be in this symphony. Little wonder that DSCH took fright at what it might have unleashed on him.

[BBMmk2]

I still can not remember the version on EMI had, that I was forever playing!

[Bryn]

For the performance aspect I would recommend Kondrashin. Of the three I have here I would go for that with the Concertgebouw (in Box 4 of the RCO Anthology series), but the Dresden and Moscow recordings are close behind (with the Melodiya version having a slightly annoying glitch just after the end of the symphony (I ripped it, edited out the glitch and burned to CD-R). Otherwise Wigglesworth (SACD) and Raiskin are very fine too. Then there's the Chicago/Haitink ...

[Bryn]

I still can not remember the version on EMI had, that I was forever playing!

This one?



or maybe this:

[cocolinmichela]

Thanks for the link, Michela. Ah, that's quite a beautiful piece! Thanks!

Did you catch Julian and Jiaxin play the Piazzolla live on BBCRadio 3 "In Tune" at 6pm today?

[BBMmk2]

Must be the Rattle, bryn. thasnks, because that was on vynl originally wasn't it?

Coco, no I didn't hear the Piazolla! I had some Tallis on at the time!

[Bryn]

Though not, of course a first choice, the composer's arrangement for 2 pianos (the only way it was heard (in private performances) in the decades prior to the full version's premier) is to be found, played by Rustem Hayroundinoff and Colin Stone (Chandos). Well worth getting as a supplement.

[BBMmk2]

Ah, that looks very interesting. Have you heard this bryn?

[EdgeleyRob]

Did you catch Julian and Jiaxin play the Piazzolla live on BBCRadio 3 "In Tune" at 6pm today?

Don't think there are many 'In Tune' listeners hereabouts Coco.

[Richard Barrett]

For the performance aspect I would recommend Kondrashin.

Indeed, and Barshai is very good too, but I'd also put in a word for Jansons and the Bavarian Radio orchestra (and indeed the whole cycle recorded by Jansons with various orchestras).

[cocolinmichela]

Don't think there are many 'In Tune' listeners hereabouts Coco.

This is the Radio 3 forum, right?

[Richard Tarleton]

Thanks all for suggestions!

[Bryn]

This is the Radio 3 forum, right?

indeed, but many here, myself included, do not regard In Tune as a particularly Radio 3 sort of programme.

I tend to be tuned to Radio 4 while In Tune is on (if listening to the radio, that is).

[EdgeleyRob]

This is the Radio 3 forum, right?

True,but Radio 3 aint what it used to be,it's gone pear shaped.

[teamsaint]

plus we aren't allowed to be nasty about R3 presenters.

Not even raffers.


Has he had any lessons in how to prepare for a national radio broadcast yet? research, stuff like that?