Shostakovich Orchetral

Maxim Vengerov's splendiferous Strad pours reedy-rich tones from its lower register and sings the sweetest high notes this side of Jascha Heifetz, without the least hint of an undesirable sound or mistuned note. Vengerov's impeccable technique and mature musicianship consistently place him at the top of today's young generation of violinists. Here he plumbs Prokofiev's emotionally charged concerto and finds its unadorned essence–especially memorable in the sensuous slow movement and the exuberant finale.

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.

Shostakovich never wrote an original composition entitled "Chamber Symphony". Works known under this title are arrangements of the composer's string quartets by the conductor Rudolf Barshai and authorized by the composer. The String Quartet No. 1, Op. 49 was written in 1938, after the Great Terror from 1937 and can be considered as an act of inner emigration. The String Quartet No. 8 in C minor, Op. 110 was written 22 years later, within three days, from 12 to 14 July 1960, in the Saxon health resort of Gohrisch.

Dmitry Shostakovich's two concertos for cello and orchestra, both written for Mstislav Rostropovich (whose recordings remain standards), come from 1959 and 1966. Although the first one is a more rhythmic, outgoing work, both are cut from the same cloth, with intensely inward passages alternating with material in Shostakovich's light Russian-folk mold. In the more serious stretches the cellist often stands exposed and alone, required to carry quite despairing material over long arcs. Italian cellist Enrico Dindo, not a well-known name but one that you're likely to be hearing again, is exceptionally good here. For the high point of it all, hear the final movement of the Cello Concerto No. 2, Op. 126, which is somewhere between Beethovenian and Tchaikovskian in its affect although not in its language.

I read a rave review of Vadim Gluzman in concert, and since I hd never heard of the Ukraine-born, naturalized Israeli violinist, I sought out this CD. The 45-year-old virtuoso is from the Oistrakh-Vengerov mold: intense, large-scaled, and powerful. All his talents are needed in the late, bleak Shostakovich Violin Sonata. The cover art, showing Gluzman dressed in black gazing out over a flat gray landscape typifies the music.

This is the third volume in Chandos’ ongoing series of Shostakovich film music, which has been receiving a great deal of attention on disc. All of this music has appeared in competing versions, some of them just as good as this, but none actually superior in any meaningful way. The playing is uniformly committed and atmospheric (great ghost music in Hamlet), and the frequent military bits come off excitingly without becoming obnoxiously strident.

John Storgårds’s acclaimed series of Shostakovich symphonies continues with this recording of Symphony No. 13. The BBC Philharmonic is joined by the bass-baritone Albert Dohmen and the Estonian National Male Choir. The symphony, subtitled ‘Babiy Yar’, caused a great deal of tension and controversy in the lead-up to its première, in December 1962 – not because of the music, but the poetry. Shostakovich had chosen to set Yevgeny Yevtushenko’s Babiy Yar. Ostensibly an outraged response to the lack of a memorial for the thousands of Jews murdered by the Nazis and dumped in a ravine near Kyiv, the poem implicitly criticised the anti-Semitism then still rife in the Soviet Union.

On the surface, Shostakovich's last symphony is a strange bird. One wonders why the first movement keeps quoting the William Tell overture. Why does the fourth movement incorporate Wagner's fate theme from the Ring? And why the cello and violin solos? The answers, frankly, don't matter. Amidst all these oddities, there is great music to be heard here. This reissue features the American premiere of Shostakovich's Symphony No. 15, from 1972–with Eugene Ormandy leading the Philadelphia Orchestra–paired with the composer's second piano sonata performed by Emil Gilels.

Shostakovich's Symphony No.8 was written in the summer of 1943, and first performed in November of that year by the USSR Symphony Orchestra under Yevgeny Mravinsky, to whom the work is dedicated. Many scholars have ranked it among the composer's finest scores. Some also say Shostakovich intended the work as a ''tragedy to triumph'' symphony, in the tradition of Beethoven, Brahms and Mahler. This release in Praga's Reminiscences series of audiophile SACD remasterings features an historic live recording from 1961 featuring Mravinsky leading the Leningrad Philharmonic.

Whatever listeners may think of Mstislav Rostropovich's first recording of Shostakovich's Symphony No. 5 with the National Symphony Orchestra, it is a historical document of the utmost importance to anyone who claims to love the music of Shostakovich.