Customer Reviews

Shostakovich: Violin Concerto No. 1; Violin Sonata

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is the best Shostakovich Violin Concerto #1 I have heard. It is taken a little slower than most but there is such depth of feeling and intensity that she surpasses all the competition. Other versions I have heard (including the recent Chang) tend to not get beneath the surface. I beleive Josefowicz really understands the tragedy of this music. She has a very interesting interview about herself and this recording in the July issue of Grampohone. It makes for interesting reading.

Leila Josefowicz is soulful and technically impeccable in her Shostakovich performances. Sakari Oramo leads the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra in fine form in the Violin Concerto No. 1, recorded live in Birmingham in January 2006, and this new recording stands up well next to the finest available recordings.

Here are some of those finest available recordings -- the 1994 recording by Maxim Vengerov with Rostropovich and the London Symphony Orchestra for Teldec is my selection for the best of all. Of course David Oistrakh's recordings are still essential -- Shostakovich composed the work for him and his huge, round, resonanant tone and lyricism. Both of his 1956 recordings are amazing -- January 2 with Mitropoulos and the New York Philharmonic (on Sony, with Rostropovich performing the Cello Concerto), and November 18, 1956 with Mravinsky and the Leningrad Philharmonic (included in the fantastic Brilliant 10-disc Oistrakh box).

The Violin Sonata, from 1968, is more somber than the 1948 Concerto, which is deeply tragic, but also full of feisty resistance. (DSCH kept the Concerto in the drawer so as to avoid Stalin's wrath, and it was only first performed by Oistrakh in 1956.) Josefowicz, with John Novacek on piano, gives an excellent reading, but not as powerful as the 1985 Moscow recording by Oleg Kagan and Sviatoslav Richter (see my review of the Moscow Studio Archives disc released in 2003).

I wholeheartedly recommend Leila Josefowicz's Shostakovich interpretations! For more by the great 20th century composer, see my list, SHOSTAKOVICH: A LISTENER'S GUIDE.