Shostakovich Orchetral

Shostakovich is not a composer the Berlin Philharmonic has regularly recorded, so this new album of Symphonies Nos 8, 9 and 10 is warmly welcome. Taped with a limited audience during the Covid pandemic, the Philharmonic’s chief conductor Kirill Petrenko combines a riveting precision with expressive intensity in his interpretation of the expansive Eighth Symphony. The succinct Ninth has plenty of crisply sardonic woodwind commentary, as in the brilliantly played third movement while the Tenth packs a formidably powerful punch, especially in a highly charged account of the second movement “Allegro.” In truth, it’s doubtful if there are better played performances of any of these symphonies on record, and Petrenko’s consistently cogent view of the music compels attention.

There’s a great quote in Wendy Lesser’s excellent book, Music for Silenced Voices: Shostakovich and his Fifteen Quartets, that describes the composer’s unique relationship with his quartets: “He could toy with cacophony, immerse himself in irony, indulge in all his darkest, least acceptable moods, and not be called unpatriotic, because nobody who cared about such labels [the Soviet censors] was listening to these compositions.” That’s why these works are so great: they represent the unbridled creative powers of one of the twentieth century’s great composers. This is the third of four releases ……

Robert Moon @ Audiophile Audition

The Pacifica Quartet address the more intimate side of Dimitri Shostakovich, particularly his quartets composed in the fateful years in the Soviet Union, 1952-1960. In 1948, Shostakovich, along with Prokofiev and Miaskovsky, had been excoriated as “formalists” incapable of direct communication with “the people.” Shostakovich, however, employed the string quartet medium as means of personal expression relatively unhampered by “political correctness.”……

Gary Lemco @ Audiophile Audition

A brilliant recording of Shostakovich's most famous piano concertos, Festive Overture, and the ballet suite "The Age Of Gold", released by the legendary classical label Naxos. Michael Houstoun (20 October 1952 —) is a concert pianist from New Zealand. He is also known as a patron and juror of musical competitions.

The sixth, tenth and eleventh symphonies by Shostakovich are among the most popular of the corpus. They showcase the composer’s quintessence: with atmospheres by turns sombre, deceptively merry, or ironical, this is music often imbued with pomp and militarism… A great specialist in Russian music, Paavo Berglund dedicated a large part of his career to promoting the works of Shostakovich, during a time when it was still poorly considered in the West.

Shostakovich - Complete String Quartets (CDs + Scores!) - Borodin Quartet
Classical | EAC: FLAC+Cue+Log | 6 Cds, Covers; 15 PDF | 2.21 Gb (CDs) + 39.8 Mb (Scores)
Label: Melodiya/BMG - Date: 1997

Rarely do we come across as intimate and wide-angled a set as this collection of Dmitri Shostakovich's 15 string quartets, all of them played by the Russian Borodin Quartet. Recorded in Moscow between 1978 and 1983, the quartets are excellently reproduced in digital sound by Sviatoslav Richter, who maintains just enough shadow from the old Melodiya vinyl's audio vérité to make the music breathe passionately…