Shostakovich: Symphonies Nos. 5 & 9

Valery Gergiev (Artist), Dmitri Shostakovich (Artist), Kirov Orchestra (Artist) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (May 11, 2004)
• SPARS Code: DDD
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Philips
• ASIN: B00022LJGK
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #206,451 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great recording. Brisk, refreshing interpretation., June 27, 2004

By 

MBA_Overlord "mba_overlord" (New York, NY United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Shostakovich: Symphonies Nos. 5 & 9 (Audio CD)

I respectfully disagree with the previous reviewer. I have greatly enjoyed this recording. Both symphonies are well-recorded. Gergiev extracts strong performances from the brass, strings, and woodwinds . . . Quite a musical hat trick. In particuarly, I am fond of the performance of the 5th very compelling. The conductor takes a brisk tempo that lifts the movement up from the maudlin, plodding pace that many conductors including Benrstein take. Overall, there's a refreshing crispness to this interpretation.

The sound is full and gives decent perspective of the orchestra without being over-miked. Dynamic contrasts are very large. Soundstaging is expansive. I really think that performing these symphonies live has really focussed the conductor and the orchestra.

In sum, a much better recording than the "classic" Bernstein one. On that disc, you can hear how multiple sessions have been spliced into a Frankenstein's monster of recording. This disc could be standard to which the performance of all future performances of the 5th and 9th will be held.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Highly confident, forward-looking performances from Gergiev, March 23, 2006

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Santa Fe Listener (Santa Fe, NM USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Shostakovich: Symphonies Nos. 5 & 9 (Audio CD)

As the mixed reviews would suggest, Gergiev's exuberant Shostakovich Fifth and Ninth won't be to everyone's taste. If you are looking for up-to-date sound and superb orchestral execution, however, you need look no further--these are plush readings captured in superb sonics. The problems, if they arise, have to do with interpretation. Gergiev sees both works as positive and forward-looking; there are no hidden messages from a dissident artist suffering under totalitarian oppression.

In other words, Gergiev gives us "official" Shostakovich, and that affronts listeners who want these works to be subversive. Leonard Bernstein took the same positive approach to the Fifth Sym. in his famous 1959 recording, and yet Gergiev betters him in grandness, helped by incredibly lifelike sound. The Kirov Orch. outplays the NY Phil, the first Russian ensemble of which this could be said. We hear Shostakovich's music executed with such precision and fullness that it's quite breathtaking at times, and the Largo of the Fifth is even more eloquent than usual under Gergiev's passionate direciton. Bernstein surpasses his Russian rival only in the finale, where instead of following the composer's fairly measured opening Allegro, Bernstein races away in a breathless Presto that transforms the music and rids it of pomposity. Gergiev adheres to the score and therefore runs the risk of sounding rhetorical; there are some dawdling moments in the quiet middle section also.

The Ninth is performed with equally impressive technique, and here Gergiev has a new idea. The Ninth offended the Soviet musical establishment with its cheekiness; a heroic symphony was expected in tribute to the travail of the Russian people during WW II. Ever since, conductors have tried to outdo each other to make the Ninth even more irreverent--a raspberry in the face of a repressive regime--but Gergiev expands it into another forward-looking, positive work. You may miss the irreverence, but in this optimistic version the symphony sounds bigger, more important, and also more measured. I was convinced by Gergiev on his own terms, and again the beauty of the recorded sound is quite seductive. (Gergiev's 2009 remake on the Mariinsky label is much the same interpretation.)

In all, this is a major release in the Shostakovich discography and a success for all concerned.

6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Gergiev and the Kirov excel at lush detail, August 7, 2004

By 

R. Hutchinson "autonomeus" (a world ruled by fossil fuels and fossil minds) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Shostakovich: Symphonies Nos. 5 & 9 (Audio CD)

Valery Gergiev has recorded Shostakovich's most popular and well-known symphony, #5. Not only that, he has recorded it along with #9, the same pairing as two of the best known recordings of #5 by Bernstein and Haitink. #9 was recorded in the Kirov's own Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg, and #5 was recorded in Finland, both in 2002. Both are superbly performed and recorded, and showcase the distinctive strength of Gergiev and the Kirov Orchestra -- delving into the score and bringing out lush details often overlooked by others.

Why then only four stars? I reserve my fifth star for Symphony #5 for Rostropovich's shattering performance on DG from the 1970s, currently unavailable. This new Gergiev rendition is quite good, comparable in quality overall to Mravinsky's 1984 account and Haitink's on Decca (see my reviews of both). Gergiev chooses a strange way to resolve the controversy over the ending -- Bernstein and some others present a real triumph, while others, including Mravinsky, Rostropovich and Haitink, present a mock triumph, or a triumph of evil. This interpretation is achieved by slowing down the tempo. Gergiev rolls right through the ending with no inflection either way -- the climax becomes a non-climax. I find this totally unsatisfactory. Rostropovich's triumph of evil may be an exaggeration of the score, but its power is undeniable.

As for #9, the only version I had heard previously was Haitink's. Gergiev takes the first movement considerably slower. I prefer Haitink's faster-paced interpretation, but the tempo gives Gergiev room to bring out lush flourishes, which is one of his trademarks. Just listen to his "Le Sacre du printemps" by Stravinsky (see my review) -- though it is episodic and loses momentum, there are brilliant, detailed passages that other accounts miss. The recording quality of the new Philips discs is far superior to the old Decca recordings by Haitink as well, as a back-to-back listen immediately reveals.

Gergiev's new recording of Shostakovich's #7, released last year, was universally acclaimed as setting a new standard for that work, long reviled by critics as overly bombastic (see my review). How? Mainly by bringing out the lush details in the central movements. He has not produced such a definitive breakthrough with this new #5/#9, but it is a fine rendition, worth hearing as an introduction to the works, or as an addition to a shelf of various interpretations and performances.