Shostakovich 5 Symphony

If Prokofiev's Symphony-Concerto for cello and orchestra and Shostakovich's Second Concerto for cello and orchestra had heretofore seemed to be late works shot through with nostalgia and bitterness, that's certainly entirely understandable. Rostropovich, the works' dedicatee who gave both their world premieres, played them that way in his recorded performances and most subsequent cellists have naturally followed his lead.

Beethoven’s final symphony was also the first in the history of music to go beyond the scope of purely instrumental music and open itself up to the human voice. Conceived in several stages between 1817 and 1824, his D minor Symphony op.125 enlists the services of a choir and four vocal soloists in its final movement, effectively becoming a cantata. With its setting of Schiller’s Ode to Joy from 1785, it conjures up a dream of humans coexisting in peace – assuming that foes can become brothers. Beethoven’s own contemporaries believed that his Ninth Symphony represented the ne plus ultra of symphonic music and that the genre’s traditional parameters had been definitively exhausted with this work, whereas in fact the Ninth marks the beginning of a new symphonic age, providing the impetus for a whole series of unorthodox successors from Berlioz and Liszt to Mahler and Shostakovich.

The first Album by the philharmonie zuidnederland was of works by Wagner and Tchaikovksy, under their chief conductor Dmitri Liss; this second album promises to be even more spectacular. The principal work, Shostakovich’s Tenth Symphony, caused rapturous enthusiasm in a previous live performance and is very close to Liss’ own heart. Liss tells of the symphony’s première shortly after the death of Stalin in 1953: “In those days, it was extremely hazardous to reveal too much of yourself in a piece of music. Shostakovich was able to manage it and for that he has my lasting and increasing admiration. I come closer to the music’s heart each time I conduct this symphony”. The CD also includes an energetic live performance of Olga Victorova’s Quinlong Azure Dragon. This work too is close to Liss’ heart, as is the composer herself – Victorova is his wife. One more reason for philharmonie zuidnederland to pull out all the stops as they perform this work about a renowned Oriental dragon as well as Shostakovich’s masterpiece with passion and fire.

Christoph von Dohnányi served as conductor of the famed Cleveland Orchestra from 1984 to 2002 and the rapport between conductor and orchestra produced some of the finest orchestral playing in this country. This recording of the Shostakovich Symphony No. 10 paired with Witold Lutosl'awski's homage to Bartok, the Musique funèbre offer the reason for the magic of this combination of ensemble and conductor. The Shostakovich is rich in sonorities and in first desk playing and von Dohnányi's control over these mighty forces makes this an immensely intense recording. The sound produced by Cleveland (captured by Decca Engineers) is huge but never less than beautiful.

British Conductor Steven Lloyd-Gonzalez makes his debut recording for First Hand Records with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales and the 6th & 9th Symphonies of Dmitri Shostakovich; two of the composer's more enigmatic and intimate works. The scale and breadth of the 6th Symphony's opening nocturnal Largo contrasted with the livelier and shorter 2nd and 3rd movements emphasises the work's unique form and place in the 20th century symphonic oeuvre.

Composed against a cataclysmic backdrop of Stalinist oppression and the Second World War, Shostakovich’s Eighth Symphony is a deeply affecting poem of suffering. The composer described it as “an attempt to reflect the terrible tragedy of war” and it contains some of the most terrifying music he ever wrote.

The Mariinsky label presents the recording of two of Prokofiev’s most popular works, Piano Concerto No 3 and Symphony No 5. Denis Matsuev features as soloist, in this his fourth recording on the Mariinsky label. Since winning the 11th International Tchaikovsky Competition in 1998 Matsuev has established a reputation as one of Russia’s leading pianists and is renowned for his interpretations of Russian music. His recordings of Rachmaninov’s Concerto No. 3 Shostakovich Piano Concertos 1 & 2 and Tchaikovsky’s first two piano concertos, have all received considerable acclaim.