Shostakovich :  Symphonies Nos. 1 and 15 at the Philharmonie, Berlin, Berliner Philharmoniker/Sir Simon Rattle 11.11.2006 (GF)


Having cut ourselves through seemingly impenetrable curtains of tobacco smoke in the public areas of the Philharmonie (Why, for God’s sake, can’t there be at least some space for non-smokers? Both Deutsche Oper and Staatsoper have managed to make their houses easily available for that strange breed of music-lovers who are not nicotinists!) we were, once in the main hall, in for a riveting and perspective-building evening. Juxtaposing Shostakovich’s first and last symphonies in the same programme is of course not a complete novelty but it is still interesting to be able to make direct comparisons between two works written 46 years apart: the F minor symphony composed by a teenager, the D major by an elderly and sick man who feels his allotted time running out.

 

No. 1 was Shostakovich’s breakthrough and became an immediate success. Its youthful exuberance has worn well during the 80+ years that have passed and it still feels fresh as paint. It also seemed that the Berlin Philharmonic enjoyed every second of it and Sir Simon, as always elegant and alert, ensured that the energetic rhythms and sudden changes got their due. The colourful instrumentation renders the first movement a sense of carnival. The inventive inclusion of a piano was also taken well care of with a rowdy solo in the second movement. In the third movement the famous Berlin strings were in the forefront, sweepingly romantic. The many instrumental solos were of course played to perfection with an extra plus for the long violin solo in the third movement. The whole performance breathed vitality and joy.

 

Returning after the interval, during which the smoke had crept also into the hall, it was almost confounding to realize that the first movement of Symphony No. 15 could actually have been composed as a sequel to the end of the first symphony: the rhythms, the naughty surprises, the delicious instrumental solos. Where the two works differ, even at this stage, is all those quotations, from his own works as well as from others’, most notably the recurrent gallop theme from the William Tell overture, the basic rhythm of which functions as a kind of Leitmotif all through the movement, which in its multifariousness is a kind of capriccio. With the second movement, however, we are in a completely different musical landscape with its dark brass chorus, elegiac cello solo, so inwardly played with mildly smoky tone. There is a cathedral atmosphere and stillness that turns the movement almost into a requiem, which develops into a funeral march. After a third movement, marked Allegretto, where the main theme is a twelve-tone series and Shostakovich again indulges in some grotesqueries, the long final movement, with quotations from Wagner’s Ring and Tristan und Isolde, seems like a farewell – to life but maybe also to the symphony. Towards the end time ticks out, as it were, and the music dies away. Sir Simon managed to keep the intensity and emotions alive during a very long silence after the last note and no one in the packed Philharmonie broke the spell until he lowered his arms. This was a magic moment rounding off a magic concert!

 

I notice that I have written mostly about the music and very little about the interpretation – and the explanation is very simple: I couldn’t think of this music better done. Number 15 was initially regarded as the odd one out of his symphonies, a bizarre conclusion to one of the greatest of 20^th century symphonic cycles, and it is not as easily accessible as some of the others. It was premiered on 9 January 1972 by Maxim Shostakovich and the Radio Symphony Orchestra of the Soviet Union and recorded shortly after by the same forces and I bought this LP as soon as I was able to get hold of it. It took me some time to come to terms with the music but it has grown on me ever since, and while it was quite some time since I listened to it, it has stuck in my memory – and Sir Simon’s reading felt so inevitably right. I do hope EMI have planned a recording – if at all possible this specific coupling would be great.

 

Göran Forsling