Customer Reviews

Ancerl Gold Edition 39: SHOSTAKOVICH Symphonies Nos. 1 & 5

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Those familiar with my reviews on Amazon will know of my love for Supraphon's "Gold Edition" Karel Ancerl CDs. Well I recently picked up the final six volumes in this collection (vols 37-42) and I have to say they are as delightful as the first 36 sets. Volume 39 features Ancerl and the Czech PO performing Shostakovich's 1st & 5th Symphonies in stereo from 1964 & 1961 respectively. Ancerl was best known for the music of his native country, but he also shined in showcasing the works of 20th Century composers. These are arguably Shostakovich's most popular and accessible symphonies, and I certainly enjoy these as much as the other celebrated accounts I own. In all, this title is part of a fitting to conclusion to a great series and a great conductor.

In the LP era Supraphon's reputation for sound was mixed, so it's fitting that the noted conductor Karel Ancerl should have his many recordings remastered so well. The sound here is clear and natural, bringing out the rustic charm of the Czech Phil.'s one-of-a-kind sound. They sound particularly light and insouciant in the Shostakovish First. Currently the vogue is to make this fizzy youthful work sound more serious, slow, and important (I heard such a performance from Valery Gergiev in concert), but Ancerl makes the music sound almost like Stravinsky in his most mischievous neoclassical style. This is a very enjoyable reading that deserves its high reputation.

the Fifth Sym. is, of course, Shostakovich's signature work, or at least it was before the fall of the Soviet Union brought us a flood of the composer's entire output. Ancerl begins with sharp intensity, just like Yevgeny Mravinsky, who was the master of this work. the intensity isn't maintained, but the Czech strings, with their tangy sonority, manage to sound more "right" than anyone outside Leningrad, and Ancerl's phrasing is focused and alert where so many rivals begin to wander.

As the symphony progresses, Ancerl manages to give full weight to the composer's intent without sounding lugubrious, another common pitfall. the line is always moving and shifting to keep our interest. The Scherzo could be more biting, but clearly the conductor considers it mischievous rather than satiric; how nice that it dances instead of clomps.

At 13 min. the Largo proceeds a little too briskly to wring out the intense emotion we get from Bernstein and Mravinsky, but a lighter reading is fully in keeping with Ancerl's overall plan -- his Shostakovich isn't tragic or subversive. Still, the Czech strings build to a heart-tugging climax. In the finale, Ancerl opts for neither a racing beginning nor grand rhetoric. He remains, as before, natural and easy. The secret of this performance, in fact, that it can say so much while seeming to relaxed about it. Only in the last movement do I miss Mravinsky's searing heat and Bernstein's volatility.

It's too bad that Ancerl marches us out rather lazily -- this could have been a legendary recording. As it is, it's one with much to enjoy and moments of magnificence.