Customer Reviews

Shostakovich: Complete Symphonies [Box Set]

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Serious critics had deemed Nikolay Myaskovsky as the best of Soviet symphonists. His promotors included Alexander Gauk, Yevgeny Mravinsky, Konstantin Ivanov, Frederick Stock (music director of the Chicago Symphony until 1951) & Yevgeny Svetlanov. Shostakovich, however, was advocated & represented by a more internationally diverse conductors, artists, ensembles.

Mravinsky, & to some extent, Gauk, gave premieres of major & important Shostakovich works. The relationship between Shostakovich & Mravinsky are on a high & positive note, with the conductor being the dedicatee of the composer's Eighth symphony (Mravinsky conducted the premiere with the Leningrad Philharmonic in 1943). Mravinsky also began to record Shostakovich works with earnest after the 1950s.

However, composer &conductor relationship worsened. Mravinsky lessened the number of performances featuring Shostakovich symphonies. By 1962, Kyrill Kondrashin entered the scene in recording the symphonies with the Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra. Other conductors followed suit such as Haitink & the Concertgebouw Orchestra, Gennady Rozhdesventsky with the USSR Ministry of Culture Symphony Orchestra, Rostropovich with the London Symphony, National Symphony (Washington DC), & others.

Like Kondrashin, Rostropovich performances of the symphonies were uneven in quality. However, Kondrashin had the upper hand since his tempos were even & always consistent. He was not too draggy & spacious, but brisk and intense. Furthermore, his Moscow Philharmonic demonstrated its upmost familiarity with Shostakovich's scores, something not dublicated totally by Rostropovich's or Haitink's orchestras.

Rostropovich best recordings are Shostakovich's 2nd, 3rd, & 8th Symphonies. His recording of the composer's 14th with the Moscow Philharmonic, with Vainberg as pianist, Vishnevskaya as soprano (recorded by Melodiya CD) won him critical acclaim. Rostropovich was not able to dublicate the intensity, absolute refinement, & control in the later recording of the same work.

Strengths: commitment, energy, some excitement, familiarity.

Weaknesses: slow tempos, orchestras not totally refined & keen, could have used more intensity & emotionalism required by the score.

Rostropovich is not a masterful conductor compared to, for example, Kondrashin, or Svetlanov. He's an abled conductor, but not with a firmer hand. He had passion in performing the great Soviet composer's works, but not at the same level as the orchestras he directed.

Recommendable. But go for the Kondrashin, Mravinsky, Bernstein, Rozhdentvensky, Neemi Jarvi, Previn & DePriest recordings. They answered unmistakably to the weaknesses of Rostropovich recordings. Also the complete symphonies set under Kondrashin & the MPO is available (Melodiya 74321 19952-2). Should you decide to go for the set, My personal instinct is to get the Kondrashin set, although one has to contact Tower Records in Great Britain to special order it (it is not available in the United States).

I currently own 5 versions of the 14th symphony (Kondrashin, Bernstein, Barshai (a relay of the preimiere in Moscow), Haitink, and another Rostropovich version on the Russian Revelation label. The Bernstein is saggy and contrived, the Haitink fails to excite, the earlier Rostropovich is in terrible audio, The Kondrashin is excellent and full of white heat, and the Barshai is even more hair raising.

And where does this version of the 14th belong? Among the very best. This perfomance's soloists were the original soloists Shostakovich intended (Vishnevskaya and Rhestin). The orchestra though different from the primiere is still excellent. When listening to the Haitink, the orchestra plays with emotional reservation. Not the case here

This set of 12 CDs is a recording of all fifteen symphonies of Dmitri Shostakovich by the cellist/conductor Mstislav Rostropovich. Not only is this survey of Shostokovich's very important symphonic output one of the few times we are able to listen to all the symphonies with as few variables as possible, allowing us to truly hear the course of thought and creativity and turmoil of Shostokovich, but it also fulfills a promise between the composer and his pupil (Rostropovich) to create this project. Rostropovich premiered some of these symphonies and had direct instruction from the composer as to the interpretation of them all. All of these facts make this a compendium of recordings that belong in the libraries of music lovers devoted to the genius of Shostakovich.

Now if only the individual performances were as solid as the project itself! While we may be hearing these works with the knowledge that the composer sanctioned them, they are variable in success. Part of this is due to the variable quality of sound the conductor elicits from the three orchestras involved (the National Symphony Orchestra, the London Symphony Orchestra, and the Members of the Academic Symphony Orchestra Moscow). The tempi are less successful than those chosen by better conductors performing these works today, and the usual degree of excitement obtained by other batons is missing. But the performances of all 15 symphonies are never less than interesting and are indeed at times illuminating. In all, this is an important body of recordings and belongs in collections of all those who appreciate the significance of Dmitri Shostakovich.

The symphonies are played throughout with much "correctness". If you have not heard the symphonies earlier, these recordings impress with what seems as clear insight, and musical understanding. But when comparing these recordings to others, they often reveal a lack of intensity, energy, etc. Many ather recordings also seem to go "deeper" into the works, making musical points more obvious/clearer to the listenter.

In this set, I enjoyed nr. 8, 2, and 3, especially, but nr. 13, 7, and (I think it was) 12, were more dissappointing. All were solid performances, which leads me to recomend this set to all who are interested in the works of Shostakovich, but to have this as a supplementary to other recordings.

Serious critics had deemed Nikolay Myaskovsky as the best of Soviet symphonists. His promotors included Alexander Gauk, Yevgeny Mravinsky, Konstantin Ivanov, Frederick Stock (music director of the Chicago Symphony until 1951) & Yevgeny Svetlanov. Shostakovich, however, was advocated & represented by a more internationally diverse conductors, artists, ensembles.

Mravinsky, & to some extent, Gauk, gave premieres of major & important Shostakovich works. The relationship between Shostakovich & Mravinsky are on a high & positive note, with the conductor being the dedicatee of the composer's Eighth symphony (Mravinsky conducted the premiere with the Leningrad Philharmonic in 1943). Mravinsky also began to record Shostakovich works with earnest after the 1950s.

However, composer &conductor relationship worsened. Mravinsky lessened the number of performances featuring Shostakovich symphonies. By 1962, Kyrill Kondrashin entered the scene in recording the symphonies with the Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra. Other conductors followed suit such as Haitink & the Concertgebouw Orchestra, Gennady Rozhdesventsky with the USSR Ministry of Culture Symphony Orchestra, Rostropovich with the London Symphony, National Symphony (Washington DC), & others.

Like Kondrashin, Rostropovich performances of the symphonies were uneven in quality. However, Kondrashin had the upper hand since his tempos were even & always consistent. He was not too draggy & spacious, but brisk and intense. Furthermore, his Moscow Philharmonic demonstrated its upmost familiarity with Shostakovich's scores, something not dublicated totally by Rostropovich's or Haitink's orchestras.

Rostropovich best recordings are Shostakovich's 2nd, 3rd, & 8th Symphonies. His recording of the composer's 14th with the Moscow Philharmonic, with Vainberg as pianist, Vishnevskaya as soprano (recorded by Melodiya CD) won him critical acclaim. Rostropovich was not able to dublicate the intensity, absolute refinement, & control in the later recording of the same work.

Strengths: commitment, energy, some excitement, familiarity.

Weaknesses: slow tempos, orchestras not totally refined & keen, could have used more intensity & emotionalism required by the score.

Rostropovich is not a masterful conductor compared to, for example, Kondrashin, or Svetlanov. He's an abled conductor, but not with a firmer hand. He had passion in performing the great Soviet composer's works, but not at the same level as the orchestras he directed.

Recommendable. But go for the Kondrashin, Mravinsky, Bernstein, Rozhdentvensky, Neemi Jarvi, Previn & DePriest recordings. They answered unmistakably to the weaknesses of Rostropovich recordings. Also the complete symphonies set under Kondrashin & the MPO is available (Melodiya 74321 19952-2). Should you decide to go for the set, My personal instinct is to get the Kondrashin set, although one has to contact Tower Records in Great Britain to special order it (it is not available in the United States).

Complete Shostokovich symphonies conducted by Rostopovich are amazing. One could spend years listening to these and still find new things to hear.

Rostropovich's performance is very good, but I haven't particularly liked the 14th (my favourite!). Comparing this recording to the other two I own (Bernstein with the NY Philarmonic and Haitink with the Concertgebouw -- this last has lyrics in each poem's original language, which I like better), I found the performance sub-par. It seems the orchestra is not performing cohesively during some piano passages.

Also, it is a shame (or should I say a sham) that not all the CDs are sold individually. I tried to buy the series one-by-one across 3 countries (US, Brazil and Chile), and haven't found Symphony No. 7 so far...

Sorry,I cannot write or speak English well.

Sorry,I cannot write or speak English well.

I feel bad for those of you who have passed by this title and have not ordered it. Buy it now or else buy a gun and shoot yourself because you don't know what you're missing! Great recordings of great music at a great price. Buy it now!