Customer Reviews

Shostakovich: The Complete Symphonies - Concertgebouw Orchestra / London Philharmonic Orchestra / Bernard Haitink

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

 

 

I have an average of about 10 recordings for each Shostakovich symphony.

My first box set of DSCH symphonies was this set, and I still think it's really great! There may be some more special versions of some of the symphonies out there, but you can't go wrong with this for an overall set.

The reviewer below who says that it's made in the last few years is plain wrong. It comes from the 70s and 80s (mostly the latter and mostly very good digital). Also, I disagree with that reviewer on sound quality; I'm pretty fussy about sound but the sound quality here in the Haitink set is excellent overall, including for Sym #13: this is one of my favourite recordings of that wonderful work, and it brings out the essential lyricism (!) of this work, in my view (Rinztler and the choir are very focused and clear)!

Of my many recordings of #7, my favourites are the Bernstein/DG one and this Haitink version: the Haitink here really is superb. The Haitink #11 is also great and gets plenty of drama in great sound for the 2nd movement.

Really, all recordings here are great; I can't think of any one which disappoints me (which can be said for other complete sets of DSCH symphonies, including Jansons' generally excellent set). I would say that I probably prefer Jansons for #6, #9, #10 over Haitink, but for most of the other symphonies, I easily prefer Haitink.

The super cheap Barshai set is very good overall too, but I would place Haitink's set above it for most performances.

So in general, this Haitink box is a superb set so you can't go wrong with this as a general set!

Bernard Haitink's performances of these symphonies regularly reveals Shostakovich as very few others ever have. First, many reviewers consider this to be the best complete cycle of Shostakovich's symphonies ever recorded. Eight of the symphonies (1, 5, 6, 7, 11, 13, 14, & 15) are considered among a handful of the best performances ever recorded, with the 5th and 15th right at "the very best." Haitink's 10th with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra is also cited often as "the best" but is not the 10th included in this box set. The remaining six symphonies are all considered excellent, not average, not pretty good, but excellent performances.

In addition, the recording quality of these Decca Great Masterwork CDs is outstanding. The dynamic range is huge. The emotional content of the music really comes through.

You can find other top performances. Mravinsky is great and has recorded numerous performances of some of these symphonies. But not all are worth owning. Do your homework. For example, of the 5th, the 1973, 78 and 84 are worth owning, but not the 1966 or 67 versions. With the 6th, it is 1965 performance that is considered his best. For the 3rd symphony, Rostopovich has a great 93 performance, but I really like Haitink's better. For the 8th and 9th, go with Solti's 89 Decca and 90 London (VPO) performances respectively. For the 14th, Rostopovich is again a great performance.

For a terrific listing of Shostakovich's work and review of recorded performances go the Yosuke Kudo's home page at [...] or look him up on the web. You will learn a lot about Shostakovich and recorded performances of his work.

If you want to know and and experience the awe of Shostakovich's symphonies, just buy this box set. Happy listening.

Contrary to what some people have deduced, this Haitink set is not new. It is a reissue of the old Decca set from years ago at a new reduced price in time for the Shostakovich Centenary. The recordings were made from the mid-1970s to the mid-1980s. If what you really want is all of Shostakovich's symphonies by one conductor in one set, this is still a contender -- hence the 4 stars, especially given the reduced price. But I would recommend buying the symphonies individually instead, and I will offer some specific suggestions.

Haitink's first recordings were with the London Philharmonic Orchestra (Symphonies 1, 2, 3, 4, 7, 9, 10 and 15). Later he began to record with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra of Amsterdam (Symphonies 5, 6, 8, 11, 12, 13, and 14). The RCOA is a better orchestra, and the symphonies recorded with the RCOA are generally better than those recorded with the LPO. That's one way to begin considering buying individual symphonies.

Another important consideration is that not all of Shostakovich's symphonies are equally good -- in fact, they are much more uneven than Beethoven's, Bruckner's or Mahler's, just to mention some great forerunners in the category of symphonic cycles. The great DSCH symphonies are No.s 4, 5, 8 and 10. No.s 1, 2 and 3 are really not essential -- the 1st was a beginner's exercise, and No.s 2 and 3 were revolutionary propaganda pieces. In general, the others can all be considered to be second or third tier -- I prefer No.s 7, 9, 11 and 14 over No.s 6, 12, 13 and 15, but I concede that at this level of ranking subjectivity increases. Both No. 11 and No. 12 are post-Stalin pro-Soviet exercises, the 11th commemmorating the failed revolution of 1905, and the 12th celebrating the Bolshevik revolution of 1917. Both No. 13 and No. 14 feature vocals, modeled on Mahler's Das Lied von der Erde (Song of the Earth), which fused song and symphony forms.

So clearly the first priority is to hear the best available versions of Shostakovich's best symphonies, No.s 4, 5, 8 and 10. Of those, Haitink ranks only for No. 8. I prefer the now out-of-print recording by Solti and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, but Haitink and the RCOA are a close second (see my review). So definitely start there! Haitink's No. 5 (paired with No. 9) is excellent, another good choice (see my review). I would place it alongside the Mravinsky/Leningrad Philharmonic, Gergiev/Kirov Orchestra, and Rostropovich/LSO recordings (see my reviews of all three). My top choice for the Fifth, though, is Rostropovich with the National Symphony Orchestra, a 1983 recording on DG that is now available as an import (see my review). Haitink's 4th, with the LSO, has clearly been superceded -- my top choice is Jarvi/Scottish National Orchestra on Chandos, a 1989 recording (strange, admittedly, but Jarvi was a student of Mravinsky!). Gergiev's recent recording is also excellent. As for the 10th, I hate to admit it, but Karajan's 1981 recording for DG with the Berlin Philharmonic is clearly superior to all contenders. (I object to Karajan on both ideological and musical grounds.) Sanderling and the Berlin Symphony Orchestra on Berlin Classics is a good second choice.

As for the rest, Gergiev's recent 7th with the Kirov is outstanding (see my review). Both Haitink and Gergiev present solid 9ths -- I prefer Haitink's interpretation, but the sound on the more recent Gergiev recording is much better (see my reviews). Rostropovich and the LSO perform an amazing live 11th (see my review). Haitink and the RCOA are brilliant on the 14th, which includes the equally superb "Poems of Marina Tsvetayeva."

That's enough for one review! See my SHOSTAKOVICH: A LISTENER'S GUIDE list for more of the great Dmitri Shostakovich.

Although you may find a better reading of some of the symphonies, altogether, Haitink's cycle of the Shostakovich symphonies with London Decca cannot be beat. With all the important orchestral works assembled in one budget package, this set is highly recommended.

The orchestral sound from both the London Symphony and the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra is top-notch and the recordings are all digital. There is an energy and power here in Haitink's readings, a force that drives these Russian masterworks with incredible gusto. I could go on, but I feel I will let the recordings speak for themselves. Highly recommended.

Made during the crossover period from analog to digital recording, Bernard Haitink's Shostakovich set has been around nearly a quarter century and has stood the test of time and was reissued in May 2006 at marginally lower price than here (see ASIN: B000F3T7RO). These performances sound uniformly wonderful and the conducting is almost universal in approach across the varied symphonies.

This set was reissued in 2006 in new wrapping at a somewhat reduced price.

Many critics like Haitink's way with this body of work. His version of the Symphony No. 8 has gotten raves from critics everywhere. One critic succinctly said it comfortably straddled the middle line between overemotionalism of Russian conductors and the slack approach of many others. Only the famous Mravinsky recording on the BBC Music label gets the same kind of raves.

Critics also like his versions of the symphonies No. 1, 2, 3, 12 and 13, all of which are helped by his moderate literal approach. In the other performances Haitinki regularly fails to reveal Shostakovich, a failing Haitink also exhibited in earlier traversals of symphonies by Beethoven and Tchaikovsky.

I think the relative value and failing of this set is best set forth in Haitink's version of the famous Symphony No. 5, one of his earlier recordings of this group. Haitink stresses the architecture of the work, the Concertgebouw Orchestra plays magnificently, and the whole thing is captured in fabulous sound that was about the best ever recorded before SACD.

However, Haitink loses points for failing to latch onto the composer's sarcasm and for essentially failing to unmask the hidden message in the ending: that the jubilation is actually forced celeration that masks the plunder of Russia by Stalin.

The notes to the original issue of the Haitink Fifth included a reference to "Testimony", the then still controversial collection of Shostakovich's memoirs. In that book, the editor (Solomon Volkov) said Shostakovic played a role in Russian society called the yurodivy. This is something of a fool that plays social critic whose message must be understood differently than stated, the same way the manifest content of your dreams only really suggest what they are about.

So when Shostakovich seems to be saying things are wonderful in his symphonies, he really means things are terrible. When he uses comedy or what people in the 11950s thought was foolishness, he is actually being sarcastic. When he projects terror or discomfort in a tragic theme, he is only scratching the surface about how miserable times really were in those days.

This was the composer's way of forcing his message into music during the Stalin reign, a message his friends in the arts understood. It is a message that Haitink only captures and relates part of the time. Where to turn?

While neither conductor produced an integral set, both Ormandy and Mravinsky find much, much more to say in the symphonies than Haitink. Ormandy -- a friend of Shostakovich who first recorded his Cello Concerto No. 1 -- left us the symphonies 1, 4, 10 and 15 in almost definitive interpretations in recordings from the 1950s and 1960s that still sound fine today.

Another friend of the composer who premiered many of his symphonies, Mravinsky, did likewise in symphonies 5, 6, 7, 8 and 12, finding more to say in symphonies 6 and 12 than any conductor on the planet. Listeners will sacrifice the wonderful sound of Haitink's set on Mravinsky recordings, some of which were made in scratchy mono during the 1950s.

In his own hyperpersonal way, Bernstein has much to say in many of these symphonies. The new Rostropovich Symphony 11, and Stokowski's classic performance of it, both cast long shadows on Haitink, whose version of Symphony 14 is sung by Fischer-Dieskau in German, not Russian. I enjoy Jarvi's rendition of Symphony 14 even thought he employs a relatively lightweight Russian bass.

For completists, critics suggest newer sets by Barshai and Kitaenko have equalled or surpassed Haitink in sound and interpretation. The Barshai set is extremely inexpensive while the SACD set by Kitaenko got staggering reviews in American Record Guide and "McQ" on the Tower Web site, who gave its performances an average score of 4.3 out of 5.

What's left to say about Haitink? His straightforward approach is fine. If sound is your most important consideration, this set delivers it at what is today a modest price. The drawback is you will not find the soul of Shostakovich in these recordings.

To settle for this set as your only Shostakovich is to hear all the notes but miss much of the message from his time and place in this world, to miss the emotional and political message of the world's greatest Soviet composer and perhaps the greatest symphonist of the 20th century.

This set is aging well. The recordings are either late analog or completely digital. This set was coming about right at the time I started collecting Shostakovich. Haitink is the conductor in all fifteen of the symphonies. The duty of the orchestra falls between the London Philharmonic Orchestra and the Concertgebouw Orchestra (now called the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra).

Let me try to review each symphony blow by blow remembering that overall I think this set is excellent to outstanding.

Symphony No.1 - This is a pretty cool reading. Then again this is a pretty cool symphony. In most cases, as with this reading, the music's percussive aspect is emphasized.

Symphony No.2 "To October" - This is the first two of Shostakovich's children which he said were "infant diseases." Haitink takes the long view and strings out this symphony for all it is worth in about 20 minutes.

Symphony No.3 "May Day" - This is the other symphony which like the 2nd was disregarded for a long time. Haitink being consistent also takes it for all that it can be and strings it out for about 30 minutes.

Symphony No.4 - I am making this review after the Grammy Award winning performance of Haitink's CSO effort has already been awarded. This is his earlier try and it does have very much in common with that powerful CSO recording. Just to note that this recording is analog.

Symphony No.5 - The Concertgebouw Orchestra is featured in this 5th. The only thing I don't like is the concert master's reading of his solo violin part in the scherzo. Otherwise this is a powerful 5th both in sound and performance. The Concertgebouw hall acoustics are of special note.

Symphony No.6 - This is another Concertgebouw effort. The timings for each movement couldn't be more perfect in my book. It's seems as though timings and tempo are key to this work which is so lopsided. A little more fire in the reading could of probably helped though.

Symphony No.7 - My first "Leningrad" symphony. This fit on two LP's or four record sides at one time. Now it fits on one CD. Haitink takes a very long and romantic view of the work.

Symphony No.8 - A very powerfully wraught vision of a dark and tragic work written in the middle of World War II. Notice the tight scherzos. An almost perfect Adagio. Two great concluding movements. This competes well even outside this box set as individual recording. In my opinion only Jarvi and Previn 1973 come close.

Symphony No.9 - Haitink emphasizes the Haydn in this work rather than the humor. I find it effective either way. The second movement marked Moderato is treated a slow movement as well as it should be in my opinion.

Symphony No.10 - This is a good version of this symphony. The scherzo is even faster than Karajan's 1981 version by a few seconds. Note that it is an analog recording.

Symphony No.11 "The Year 1905" - A great reading. I thought the third funeral-like movement a bit cool for a time. Only Stokowski really has a warm inviting funeral (that sounds weird I know). A tremendous performance from the Concergebouw Orchestra in all DDD sound.

Symphony No.12 "The Year 1917" - Haitink takes what is a repetious symphony and makes it colorful. It not driven like Mravinsky. So if you expect Haitink to out-Mravinsky Mravinsky then you are mistaken. But if you take this recording and open your mind to Haitink's reading you have to agree that it is the most out of "nothing" that one conductor can make of this symphony.

Symphony No.13 "Babi Yar" - This recording should win an engineering award. Like the 8th it is a great stand alone recording. Powerful and haunting.

Symphony No.14 - This has the original language to each poem. I've argued before that once you start singing the words become music and thus changing the language that they were originally written in they sound different. This song cycle/symphony was originally written with the poems in Russian. They are best heard that way too. This is the one symphony out of the cycle I really do not like because of that reason.

Symphony No.15 - The Penguin Guide at one time gave Haitink's interpretation and the London Philharmonic's performance of this symphony a rosette. I couldn't agree more. Essentially this is a four movement symphony that is in 45 minutes. Each movement should have a time corresponding to the following roughly 1) 8 minutes, 2) 16.5 minutes, 3) 4 minutes, and 4) 16.5 minutes. Haitink's reading roughly follows this pattern. As I stated with the 6th symphony tempo and timings seem very important (at least to me). Haitink does a nice job with the dynamic end on this symphony also. I also think that this symphony along with the 8th and 13th stands well alone from this set.

So in conclusion the only symphony I really have any qualms with is the 14th. Some people don't like the 14th anyway. I think it is his masterpiece, but then again that is after listen to every version of it many times. The 14th is a symphony that grows on you. I find many newbies to Shostakovich liking the 12th a lot. From a Shostakovich point of view it is not a very impressive symphony, but I can see where the new comer might be impressed. The key Shostakovich symphonies for me are the 1st, 5th, 8th, 10th, and 13th. To me this set reveals each one of those essential symphonies well.

The Complete cycle of the 15 Shostakovich Symphonies under the direction of Bernard Haitink, LCO, RCO, are a treasure to have. For their formal cohesion and remarkable sound, the Decca box set was singled out by "Gramophone" as one of the very best renderings of these works overall. If Shostakovich is your thing, this set is what you crave.

SHOSTAKOVICH

Few composers have ever been more representative of their age than Dimitri Shostakovich. It was once famously said that it is impossible to create great art out of a steelworks and yet this is precisely what Shostakovich does in his 3rd symphony. OK the last choral movement is a bit over the top but if you can"t enjoy this, the "worst" of DSCH's symphonies, you're not a real classical fan.

I've come a bit late to DSCH's music. When I was young, I was taught to despise DSCH as a Soviet apparatchik. I never really took his music seriously until last year. I then heard a recording by (of all people) Herbert von Karajan of DSCH's 10th symphony and was immediately overwhelmed. Here was a composer who not only wrote for his time but also for history. He is also one of the few artists who, literally, faced death for his music. Read the story of his 4th Symphony. His so-called "war symphonies"(6-8) offer a catalog of some of the worst experiences in human history transformed into high art. 5 is a special case, listen and decide.

I was delighted to find that there was a set of the complete recorded symphonies of DSCH ( listen to the works and read the notes and you will understand the acronym) made by Bernard Haitink and the Amsterdam Concertgebouw and London Symphony Orchestras. Although some commentators say there are better performances of individual symphonies ( please read my review of Karajan's 10th), I think that Haitink has a very profound understanding of DSCH's psyche and a deep sympathy for where he is coming from. There can be no better set.

I would love to go on and give my views on some of the later, post-war symphonies, which are fascinating, complex and to some extent unreadable, but this is not the appropriate medium. Suffice it to say that this is more than worth the $80 or so that it costs. It is worth a lifetime of listening.

To be honest, I only heard a few of the Shostakovich symphonies in this collection. Haitink's performance of the first is terrible. His version of the 13th and 14th are o.k. and his 12th did not make me change my mind that it is the least of Shostakovich's symphonies. Eugene Ormandy's performance of the 1st is the one to beat. Bernstein's 5th and 9th and Karajan's 10th remain unsurpassed.