Customer Reviews

Shostakovich: Symphonies No. 5 op. 47 & No. 9 op. 70

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

 

 

The reason to pick up this disc is the 9th, an excellent recording by the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra. The live 5th, a 1967 recording of Mravinsky and the Leningrad Philharmonic, is an inferior recording of an excellent performance. For a much better recording of the same forces with a performance every bit as good, try instead the 1980s recording on Erato (see my review).

Mravinsky and the LPO premiered many of Shostakovich's symphonies, including the 5th, and Mravinsky didn't change his interpretation much over the years, so even via the old Mravinsky of the 1980s you can still hear something very much like the original performances back when he was in his prime.

See my SHOSTAKOVICH: A CENTENARY LISTENER'S GUIDE list for more of the great Dmitri Shostakovich.

Above (or below) reviewer is correct: It's a badly recorded Fifth. It's kind-of a fake, too -- because the performance was not, as claimed, recorded in the Rudolfinum in Prague in May of 1967 (when Mravinsky actually gave a performance of that work), but a live performance from Vienna from 11 years later. I don't know if the original of that recording has as much distortion, but there's plenty here. It's still Mravinsky, though, and it's still a great performance. And although the sound is unacceptable by all modern standards, I kind of enjoy the distortion - because it adds to the tortured and pained quality of this Symphony which gives it an interpretive hue all of its own.

In any case, the 9th with Zdenek Kosler also on this (no reason to think that's wrongly attributed), is a.) in much better sound and b.) a terrific, joyful, bouyant performance! Controversy aside, a disc worth including in your DSCH collection. (And currently the only way to get the sonically inferior Vienna performance of Mravinsky, anyway.)
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