Customer Reviews

Shostakovich: Concertos; Orchestral Suites; Chamber Symphonies [Box Set]

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This collection of the orchestral suites and chamber symphonies filled a gap in my collection of Shostakovich's music with the exception of the concertos. The CDs are generously filled with the majority of the nine going over 70 minutes. For the most part, I thought the arrangement of the music on the discs was very good. I liked having the first piano concerto between the jazz suites but it is odd that the two tracks from the film Pirogov are separated by the Romance from The Gadfly. To the casual observer, it might appear that the CDs duplicates some music as the collection contains suites from both of the film versions of Hamlet (from 1932 and 1964) and two suites from the ballet The Bolt (from 1931 and 1934) but they are distinctly different (the Bolt suites share the Intermezzo and Tango). The only piece that is duplicated is the Romance found in the suite and by itself.

Perhaps the gem of this collection are the four chamber symphonies, orchestrated by Rudolf Barshai, that are played by the Chamber Orchestra of Europe with Maestro Barshai conducting. There are some other gems in the set like an inspired performance of the Execution of Stephan Razin conducted by Herbert Kegel and the Overture on Russian and Kirghiz Folk Themes conducted by Bernard Haitink. I had not heard the latter piece for several years; a very colorful overture and a delight. My preference is for David Oistrakh and Mstislav Rostropovich is the Violin and Cello concertos; they are well represented in this set. The Violin concertos are played by Victoria Mullova (No. 1) and Gidon Kremer (No. 2). Heinrich Schiff plays both Cello Concertos under Maxim Shostakovich and turns in fabulous performances. The First Piano Concerto is well-played but I did not care for the performance of the Second Piano Concerto with the middle movement being particularly slow in tempo.

So, there is much in this collection to enjoy. I was only duplicating the concertos with some of the music unknown to me (such as The Counterplan and Alone) or unheard for a long time. Highly recommended.

For those who love Shostakovich, this 9 disk set appears to be the definitive collection of his lesser know music with piano concertos thrown in for good measure. Like most collections of this sort, the performances are somewhat uneven. Some performances are excellent. Others are quite ordinary. But this is a good set for those who wish to break away from Shostakovich's symphonies and sample other pieces this great composer gifted to us.

The major drawback in the set are the physical arrangement of the tracks. The first of the nine disks begin with a Jazz Suite, followed by Piano Concerto No. 1, followed by another Jazz Suite. But I still find it difficult to understand why the producers sandwiched a major piano concerto between two more frivolous works. This disk concludes with the satirical Tea for Two orchestration titled "Tahiti Trot," which to me only has interest in how it came into being as a bet.

There are a couple of suites from various stage or film music: We get two of them in two different versions. These are spaced among other works so one doesn't have to hear two versions back to back, but it might have been more interesting to hear them back to back for comparison.

Then we get "The Execution of Steven Razin" shortly after the Songs of the Forest. To me these make strange disk fellows even though both are vocal works.

It was this collection, however, that introduced me to the Shostakovich chamber orchestral works which then led me to Shostakovich's string quartets. I admit that I now primarily listen only the the string quartets, I do fall back on their chamber orchestra incarnations. The chamber orchestra works alone make the set a good buy. I can live with what I believe to be sloppy production decisions on the order of the tracks.

Now that this set is available in MP3 format, I would recommend you listen to the pieces and develop your own playlists as I have done. I find that many works I never listen to. Others I listen to quite often.

Given these drawbacks, the set is still worth while. Listen and enjoy, but expect some whiplash as the producers jerk you along.

Edited after aging: Jan 27, 2008