Customer Reviews

Shostakovich: Symphony No. 14

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Shostakovich's 14th Symphony is actually more of a song cycle, made up of settings of poems by Lorca, Rilke and others, centered around the topic of death, scored for soprano, bass and chamber orchestra augmented by a variety of percussion instruments. It's not really like anything else I've heard. The singers are excellent. Slovak' conducting is right on. The performance is mercurial, by turns impassioned, heartbreaking, spooky, angry, ironic and sardonically humorous. The sound is excellent, on heardphones or speakers. The only slight complaint about this CD is that the booklet doesn't print the actual texts of the poems, it just summarizes their contents. Every time I listen to this recording I am amazed at how good it is, and how, out of the many hundreds of recordings I have listened to and owned over the years, this is one of the few that always seems to be perfect.

This symphony, perhaps, one of the best darkest, pessimist works ever written (with Mahler's 6th Symphony, Sibelius 4th Symphony, Vaughan Williams' 4th and 6th Symphonies)...

This work, be constitued in 11 movements and based on poems by F. Garcia Lorca (in 1 and 2), G. Appolinairre (3 -8), W. Küchelbecker (9) and Rainer M. Rilke(10 and 11). I impressed especially, 3rd mvt: Lorelei, At the Sante Jail, O Delvig, Delvig! and a short Conclusion (1 mnt.)

Shostakovich was used 12-tone system for the first and last time in this work. Only, the 9th movement, "O Delvig, Delvig!" written in D-flat Major and I think, this is the most romantic movement of symphony and comes without a break and suddenly after 8th movement which tells a war between Cosscaks and Byzantines. And after this tense music, suddenly comes a romantic and sentimental music from violas and violoncellos which tells a love story.

Highly recommended for any Shostakovich fans.