Customer Reviews

Shostakovich: Symphony No. 5; Seven Romances on Poems of Alexander Blok [Hybrid SACD]

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The Shostakovich 5th is one of my "desert island" pieces that sounds as fresh as ever over decades of listening to this piece. The SACD sound is simply gorgeous. How about the performance? Well if you consider an old Bernstein recording with the New York Philharmonic as the best of a large batch (as I do) this will disappoint you. The tempo is considerably slower than Bernstein's and lacks the crispness and ferocity that imbues Bernstein's recordings. If beautiful engineering along with a more romantic and languid conducting appeals to you then get this disk. It is, however, not my cup of tea.

If you are familiar with Shostakovich's music the 5th Symphony will probably need no introduction, if you are not the 5th is a very good a place to start; a very accessible work of contrasts and exuberance.

The recording quality here is not in question, the sound is very good, but what of the playing? It is certainly a noble performance, but in this instance that is not always a good thing, perhaps for "noble" read slow. This works well with the largo, it certainly conveys requisite feeling of anguish, but the problem here is that this slow approach is extended to the rest of the symphony. This overall slow treatment results in a somewhat lack-lustre performance. The first movement comes across as ponderous; the last movement starts off with a rather plodding tempo; it does gain momentum, but fails to gain in excitement, and while the coda produces a great sound, it fails to move.

The Seven Romances on Poems of Alexander Blok fair somewhat better, well sung rich and at times appropriately husky; there is some fine mournful playing too from the cellist Hai-Ye Ni and subtly from Eschenbach on piano. However it is an odd coupling with the Symphony, not perhaps what one would choose to listen after Shostakovich's 5th; it certainly makes a strange transition.

If it's Shostakovich's 5th you are after, there is no shortage of better performances available: Jansons on EMI, Haitink on Decca and at bargain price Rahbari on Naxos to mention a few.

Oppression is just a word. Of course it has primarily negative connotations, but its just a word. Now if you live what oppression represents you realize oppression is just a word-(as a Nikajack-Cherokee I have some knowledge of this). Shostakovich(Demmie to his friends), knew what oppression represented-he lived it his entire adult life. Many of his friends had disappeared- couldnt even be spoken of else he meet the same fate. Above what is commonly discussed is that Demmie was considered a 'polock' because of his heritage, and a 'Jewlover' because of his sensebilities and tastes. And stalin himself(itself?) spoke out against Demmie in pravda. My need that the last mvt(4th) of the 5th should be long(esp. the finale) has to do with it seeming to be symbolic of an execution, Demmies execution. In fact the whole symp can be said to be about the suffering up to an execution. He has survived all the horrors, made all the sacrifices only to be executed. It has nothing to do with the book 'Tesimony'; it has to do with having some understanding of being a singular target of a monster despot who is responsible for the death of at least 30 million humans. Of being in constant fear of losing every one and every thing you hold dear. It just takes a little empathy. If you want the finale to be joyous, then you want Demmie to have written something he did not. ITS about reganing your honor after being terrified and humiliated and spitting blood in the face of the executioner and smiling as the blade falls w/ the final drumbeat.Youve won in Spirit, if not in body. Its your Spirit that must survive in the end. Eschenbach probably wouldnt quote me but he seems to have the same feeling about the 5th as I do. He takes every mvt very seriously and all are longish. The last mvt is 12:23 but this includes a few sec of applause. I have 16 versions of the 5th and have had 4 others. This cd is one of the top 4 in both performance and production(and this ones live). The other top 3 are the 2 w/Rostropovich & NSO and Thomas & SFSO