Customer Reviews

Shostakovich & Britten / Symphonies 4 & 5 / Four Sea Interludes

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is one incredible CD! Both orchestras are at the top of their game and the pieces are outstanding. Probably the "eye-catcher" on this album is Shostakovich's 5th symphony and this is one of my favorite performances, even though their are a couple tempos I would like to hear differently. The whole Chicago Symphony Orchestra, however, plays to their fullest and the brass climaxes are the best I've heard.

The Britten pieces are very beautiful compositions and are well worth listening to, but for me the most brilliant thing on this CD is Shostakovich's 4th symphony. This piece was written at the height of his political fury with Stalinist Russia and the music certainly tells all. This is one of the angriest pieces I've ever heard, and one of the most exciting. This performance, too is absolutely incredible. The string (and then tutti) fugue in the middle of the first movements is one of the most intense musical experiences I've had. The whole work is a true masterpiece and will leave you floored. Buy this CD. Of my 250 classical orchestral CDs, it's one of my favorites.

Note: to any brass player thinking about this CD, it's a must have. A MUST HAVE!!!!!!

This CD is a must have on one's shelf. The clarity and precision of the performers is formidable. Both the CSO and LSO deliver and make this CD duo a terrific buy. I highly recommend it. Totally worth it.
Shostakovich 4 & 5 are simply and utterly outstanding! The CSO is superb in their playing and truly convey the ironic sarcasm that both the 4th and 5th need. The CSO brass, simply amazing; the 1st movement of the Fourth, carries on with great power and vigor just as it should be.
Britten, performed by the LSO, is also incredible, though I am not a great fan of Britten, I still listen to Britten simply for the sake that the LSO gives it all.
There is power, precision, utter clarity, outstanding balance, and dynamics from both orchestras. Yet for my taste, and I know SOME will agree, is that Previn's tempi are a bit on the conservative side, which in my opinion does not allow for much excitement to happen. That would be my only "but." Yet, I totally, 100% recommend this recording to anyone and ENJOY!

This is very good collection of two giant composers of 20th century. Already, Shostakovich and Britten were both very close friends. I think, sometimes in Britten's music, there are influences from Shostakovich. The performances of all works are very good. Shostakovich symphonies played with Chicago Symphony, Brittens played with London Symphony Orchestra.

Shostakovich's 4th is a lesser-known work. Because, in the years of 4th Symphony, still there is arguements of Lady Macbeth disaster premiere. But later, he answered to these with his ever-famous "The answer of a Russian artist to critics" 5th Symphony, and the premiere of it was a great success. He forgived by critics and he became the grandest symphony composer of Russia (U.S.S.R.).

In this set, there is the excerpts from Britten's most famous opera "Peter Grimes". It's 4 Sea Interludes are ever-famous. Especially, the 2nd, 3rd and 4th are very amazing. The 1st Interlude, "Dawn" is the games of wawes. 2nd interlude is "Sunday Morning". There is a brigth sunny sunday morning, and the bells of morning to be hear. Also, the flute solo plays a bird, who chirped sweetly. The 3rd Interlude is "Moonlight". It is a very romantic, touching music, and comparable with Beethoven's and Debussy's (Clair de lune) moonlight musics. The 4th Interlude is a terrible "Storm". It is very fantastic. All the interludes (also, the opera) are impressive, effective, orchestration are excellent.

Highly recommended.

The underlying reason for pairing Shostakovich and Britten on a bargain two-fer isn't the similarity in their music but the fact that they made friends over the Cold War divide. Britten visited the Soviet Union several times to see his great contemporary. Here Previn does a commendable job with each work except one.

The Britten fares best, I think. There are a number of excellent versions of the dark, melancholy Sinfonia da Requiem, not the easiest work for audiences to get into but a favorite among conductors for its dramatic contrasts. Previn's version ranks with Rattle's and Barbirolli's and has the advantage of clear, vivid sonics. There's even more competition in the Four Sea Interludes from Peter Grimes, and Previn's account, again with excellent sonics and impressive playing by the LSO, is very good, if a bit cautious and literal-minded at times.

The Shostakovich Fourth is a mammoth, problematic work that conductors like to take on as a challenge--heaven knows it's not an audience favorite. Previn gives a middle-of-the-road account that puts everything nicely in place, no mean achievement in a welter of themes, moods, and tempos--but without reaching for machine-age propulsiveness as Myung-Whun Chung does on his riveting recording from Philadelphia (DG) or the masterful epic sweep of Gergiev on Philips. Less good is his Fifth Sym. from Chicago. Dedicated as Previn was to Shostakovich, he often sounds foursquare and uninspired. Everything is played quite well, but interest flags. Perhpas part of the reason is that in three of the four movements Previn's timing is a minute slower than the classic Bernstein with the NY Phil. on Sony.

In all, this isn't the coleciton to buy if you want cream-of-the-crop interpretations, but it's a fine bargain on the whole.

Andre Previn is undeniably the best interpreter of 20th century Russian music the West has ever had. His recordings of Shostakovich, Prokofiev, and Rachmaninov are of definitive quality almost without exception.
Combine that with the excellences of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and you get an experience that is almost unreal. The brass from the CSO under Previn's insightful direction yield a treasure trove of magnificence. The only shame is that this is the full extent of the combination. I could go on and on with "if only" thoughts about the Previn-CSO coupling.

The Fourth Symphony of Dimitri Shostakovich is a true allegory about the oppression, the anguish and struggle feelings lived by the composer. Shostakovich completed this work in 1936 but withdrew the work after a great number of rehearsals under Fritz Stiedry an it was not until 1961 that the piece was finally premiered in Moscow.

The approach of Previn is excellent, the abrasive and mercurial performance is quite different from Ormandy. If you imagine a giant U each one of both are in every corner. Ormandy is more sinister and dark; while Previn is more sarcastic and cynical. It's emotively closer to Mahler.

It is impressive the echoes of the Fifth present throughout the development of the Fourth.

Previn shines with radiant splendor in Britten. His Sinfonia da Requiem with London Symphony is bitter and soberly expressive. The long sonorities and chromatic texture are exuberant. The rhythmic expansiveness and rich shades accent the pain caused by his father' s death.

Four Interludes from Peter Grimes are eloquent. The drama and the sense of horror produce in the listener a similar effect than the horrid injustice committed against the Doctor in Henryk Ibsen's An Enemy of the people.

In what the Fifth final balance, I have my reserves. There is a sensible lack of rage and grief in the First Movement. This First Movement must by itself be able to arouse the hellish Stalin 's fist struggling and menacing us. Pitifully he does not get it.

That' s the reason why I can not give the five stars. The rest of the double album is A-1.

See my review at www.amazon.co.uk