Customer Reviews

Britten the Performer #13 - Shostakovich: Symphony No.14; Britten: Nocturne, Op.60

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This is an interesting recording of the Shostakovich 14th Symphony for several reasons. The same soloists, Mark Rezhetin and Galina Vishnevskaya that preformed at the premiere of the symphony repeat their performances under the baton of Benjamin Britten, a friend of Shostakovich. This also was the first performance of the symphony outside of Russia. This was a much anticipated performance and Benjamin Britten delivers a riveting performance.

The balance seems to favor the voices but the overall engineering is quite good. Britten generally has taken slower tempos in this performance as compared to Rudolf Barshai but the pace is good and the music does not seem slow. The sound of this recording is far better than the premiere recording (on Russian Disc) by Maestro Barshai which was distorted at times and Galina Vishnevskaya had problems clearing her throat. So this recording is certainly worth having for its historical importance but also because it is nicely performed.

The CD also holds a performance of Britten's Nocturne (composed in 1958) scored for tenor, seven obbligato instruments and strings. The texts are from various English poets such as Keats, Tennyson, Wordsworth and Shakespeare. One of the poems, She Sleeps on Soft Last Breaths, is by Wilfred Owen whose poems would later play a prominent role in the War Requiem. The tenor is Peter Pears who sang at the premiere of Nocturne and whose long collaboration with the composer makes this an interesting performance. This is a lyric work of great sensitivity, nicely scored for soloists and string orchestra, certainly one of Britten's lesser known and more personal compositions.

This is a remarkable disc that should be on the list of anyone interested in the music of Shostakovich and Britten. The only problem is that the texts are not reproduced in the booklet.

It would be hard to overpraise this recording from June 14, 1970, of the Western premiere of Shostakovich's Sym. 14. The sound is of studio quality -- high studio quality at that -- with the two soloists miked close up. Briten, to whom the work was dedicated, delivers one of his most varied, insightful readings on disc, although there is much to be said for Simon Rattle's EMI disc from last year. I know a handful of rival interpretations (Bernstein's and Haitink's among them); this one stands at the very top. The singers, Mark Rezhetin and Galina Vishnevskaya, were associated with the Fourteenth from its Soviet premiere in 1969. Here they seem especially dramatic and varied in their approach to the texts. All eleven poems are centered on death, but Shostakovich's music is far from uniformly grim, and these singers give us regret, morbid wit, elegaic wistfulness, defiance, and resignation in the face of death. A must-listen.

Britten's commercial recording of his haunting "Nocturne" dates from 1959, considerably before the time of this live recording in 1967. Pears's voice doesn't seem to have declined appreciably, however, and the BBC engineers have caught him in an attractive ambience; they have also caught the orchestral part with vivid detail -- once again, a studio-quality recording. Britten had an uncanny ability to write for Pears's quite individual timbre (a sound that takes some adjustment), and longtime fans of this song cycle and its companion piece, the Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings, cannot hear the music without Pears in mind. Happily, this powerful reading is, if anything, more powerful and engrossing than the studio version on Decca. Both come as close to definitive as anyone could wish for.

In all, this is one of the most desirable installments in the BBC's Britten series.

Shostakovich's Symphony No. 14 'Symphony of Death', perhaps one of his more personal and contemplative works written when he was gravely ill, was dedicated to Benjamin Britten and after the 1969 premiere in Russia, Britten was the first to perform the work in the Western world. This recording is a successful remastering of the original made in 1973 and it is important for many reasons.

Britten as a conductor was a meticulous rehearsal conductor and while his podium style was reserved, the depth of his performances was directly due to the intense preparation of the work in rehearsal. Here Britten conducts the English Chamber Orchestra and utilizes the talents of the two soloists who premiered the work - Mark Rezhetin and Galina Vishnevskaya. The balance between the orchestra and the voices is fine and if the soloists seem to overpower the delicacy of the orchestral writing, that is in part due to the quality of these two singers' vocal production. Vishnevskaya was a highly regarded Russian soprano (wife of Rostropovich) but her voice is one that requires an ear for the Slavic approach to singing: there is wide lurching and wobbling and stridency that for these ears quickly becomes wearing. Rezhetin has the requisite dark Russian basso sound but the poetry is suggested rather than felt.

Shostakovich's Symphony No. 14 is not often performed and the reasons may lie in the content. The work is based on poems about death and the tone of the work can be grim if concentration lags. Britten keeps it all in place and manages to make this premiere recording one of true value. The CD is 'filled' with a fine performance of Britten's 'Nocturne, for tenor, 7 instruments & strings, Op. 60' sung by Peter Pears for whom the work was composed. It is a glorious work and makes a fine recital with the Shostakovich. This CD is definitely one that belongs in the collection of those who appreciate 'first performances' of important works. Highly Recommended, Grady Harp, February 06