Apollinaire

Dmitri Shostakovich was the Soviet Union’s greatest composer and a prime example of the artist under a totalitarian system. His works – including the 15 symphonies in this collection – unite powerful emotional expression with formal mastery. These acclaimed recordings are conducted by Leonard Bernstein, Myung-Whun Chung, Neeme Jarvi, Herbert von Karajan, Andre Previn and Mstislav Rostropovich – among his finest interpreters.

Despite the fact that there are multiple recordings of Shostakovich's deeply moving Symphony No. 14, this rather old but remastered recording is unique in the quality of performance: Bernard Haitink conducts his Concertgebouw Orchestra and elected to use non-Slavic singers Julia Varady and Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau who in turn sing the poems in their original languages rather than the Russian translations used in the original premiere. The effect is staggeringly beautiful and if one must choose a single recording of this symphony, this would be the one that captures the essence of Shostakovich's vision.

This six-CD set is sure to be of interest to fans of Susan Graham, the phenomenally successful American mezzo-soprano. The recordings, with the exception of just a few tracks from the 1990s, were made between 2000 and 2005, and they reveal Graham in her prime. Five of the discs had previously been released, but one is made up of selections from a variety of sources, including complete opera recordings. The set demonstrates Graham's versatility, both stylistically in the many types of music she sings and in the emotional spectrum that the songs and arias encompass. .

I drew all that I could from Éluard, Apollinaire, Max Jacob, etc… I do not claim to have resolved the poetic problems musically through intelligence (the voices of the heart and of instinct are the most reliable).

Francis Poulenc in Journal de mes mélodies