Shostakovich: Symphony No. 1 / Symphony No. 5 [Hybrid SACD - DSD, Live]

Dmitri Shostakovich (Composer), Kurt Masur (Conductor), London Philharmonic Orchestra (Orchestra) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Orchestra: London Philharmonic Orchestra
• Conductor: Kurt Masur
• Composer: Dmitri Shostakovich
• Audio CD (October 18, 2005)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Hybrid SACD - DSD, Live
• Label: London Philharmonic
• ASIN: B000B6N6G8
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #159,758 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Symphony No. 1 in F minor, Op. 10: Allegretto - Allegro non troppo

2. Symphony No. 1 in F minor, Op. 10: Allegro

3. Symphony No. 1 in F minor, Op. 10: Lento - Largo più mosso

4. Symphony No. 1 in F minor, Op. 10: Lento - Allegro molto

5. Symphony No. 5 in D minor, Op. 47: Moderato

6. Symphony No. 5 in D minor, Op. 47: Allegretto

7. Symphony No. 5 in D minor, Op. 47: Largo

8. Symphony No. 5 in D minor, Op. 47: Allegro non troppo

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Shostakovich with a Difference, November 15, 2005

By 

J Scott Morrison (Middlebury VT, USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Shostakovich: Symphony No. 1 / Symphony No. 5 (Audio CD)

First, I must say that the sound on this CD, recorded live in concert in 2004, is spectacular in both its SACD and plain vanilla formulations. Rich deep lows, precise highs, mid-range clear and present. Considering this was recorded in Royal Festival Hall on the South Bank, that's saying something. Someone has figured out how to get lifelike sound in that hall. And the London Philharmonic is in great form with its newish music director, Kurt Masur.

As to the performances, they are different from any I've ever heard and at first I wasn't sure I liked what I was hearing, but repeated listenings have led me to revise my opinion upward. I still have some quibbles -- for instance, in the First Symphony, Masur seems to lose his conception of the form of the piece in the third and fourth movements, and things tend to meander. And I have rather mixed feelings about how he ends No. 5. The concluding several minutes of the fourth movement seem to be going for monumentality and majesty rather than brio and excitement. I was brought up on Bernstein's spine-tingling finale and that still seems the way to go -- and most other conductors seem to agree with that -- but one must commend Masur for having his own ideas on the matter. And you have to give him and the orchestra credit for bringing it off. The tempo of those last pages is slower than I've ever heard them and sometimes seems to be grinding to a halt. The timpani seem to be in the room with you, and those final timp strokes at the end literally rattled my windows. Wow!

In the first movement of the Fifth there are some muddled inner voices that I would prefer to hear more clearly. In the first movement of the First Symphony there is a delicacy -- along with the sarcasm -- that is quite winning. Strangely this effect is absent in the two Lento introductions to III and IV. The Allegro molto of the First's Finale, though, regains the clarity and delicacy of the first movement and all ends well. And may I just gape in wonder at the mastery of the 18-year-old Shostakovich who wrote the symphony in order to gain entrance into the graduate program of the Leningrad Conservatoire?

This CD has several things going for it: Masur's clearly personal ideas about the works, the fabulous playing of the LPO, the generally wonderful recorded sound. One could certainly do worse than have this recording. But I think I still prefer Haitink and Järvi in the First, and Bernstein and the old Stokowski in the Fifth.

Scott Morrison

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A riveting First, one of the very best, paired with a Fifth that tends to split the difference, May 29, 2011

By 

Santa Fe Listener (Santa Fe, NM USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Shostakovich: Symphony No. 1 / Symphony No. 5 (Audio CD)

It's hard to add much of substance to Scott Morrison's lead review, which captures the essentials of this CD. Masur, usually so reserved and stolid, developed a reputation for his Shostakovich; perhaps the affinity can be traced back to the conductor's years under Soviet oppression in East Germany. You still have to pick and choose among his Shostakovich recordings, however; at times they suffer from too much restraint and not enough biting exuberance, satire, and bitterness.

On the positive side of the ledger stands this Sym. #1, which is outstanding in every way, as Mr. Morrison points out. In the half dozen years since the LPO released this generous pairing (79 min.), the orchestra has acquired a young Russian star, Vladimir Jurowski, as the successor to Masur. Jurowski's Shostakovich has also appeared on the LPO house label, but in the First Masur has nothing to fear, so exuberant, attentive, and alive is his reading. It even surpasses the recent accounts by an old master, Valery Gergiev, and a rising one, Vasily Petrenko. The piece is riddled with quick changes of mood and style, from the gloomiest intimations of death to bouncy post-adolescent coltishness -- what a marvel that the still teenage Shostakovich understood so much -- and Masur is awake to every shift. I would rank this reading with the old Haitink on Decca, which happens to be with the same orchestra. Haitink scores with greater wit, Masur with more grandeur.

By comparison, the Fifth Sym. is harder to bring off, despite its vast popularity. Conductors are up against thrilling readings from the likes of Mravinsky and Bernstein. there's also the underlying riddle of the symphony as a whole. Is it a genuinely felt document of contrition after the brutal suppression of the gritty opera, "Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District"? Or is this seemingly populist work a vehicle for hidden bitterness, satire, and sorrow? famous as the first Bernstein recording is -- like Mr. Morrison, I was raised on it -- a rehearing reveals that it is more conciliatory and even celebratory than one remembered. The tensest, most revisionist version that I know of comes from Rostropovich and the National Sym. on DG. Which road would Masur take?

He chooses a little form both camps, but on the whole there's a sense of neutrality. The first movement and Scherzo are played with considerable weight and strength, yet there's not enough real power in the former or sarcasm in the latter -- Masur clearly has no political statement to make. The Largo proceeds with a touching bittersweet quality, so it's a success even if more intensity would be better. The finale doesn't adopt Bernstein's brilliant stroke of starting very fast and then accelerating; Masure keeps to the composer's more measured markings. I miss the whirlwind of excitement that Bernstein -- and quite a few after him -- generates in the finale. Yet Masur doesn't go to sleep. He feels the turmoil underlying the score's brash triumphalism. The question posed about any reading of the final pages is whether they should tragic or celebratory, and that's essentially a political question about the composer's sincerity. In the post-Soviet West we'd prefer for the symphony's triumphs to be undercut at the end. Masur slows down to a trudge that achieves no specific goal, unfortunately.

As a footnote, these recordings derive from two concerts in 2004, before the renovation that transformed Royal Festival Hall from one of the most notoriously bad-sounding on the classical circuit to one that is more than respectable today. Bravo to the engineers who managed somehow to get such good sonics under poor conditions.