Important to state,
perhaps that this is a reissue, as Signum
nowhere mentions its previous incarnation.
Click on Crotchet and you will find
you can buy the Cala at mid-price, and
the reissue for full price.
I cannot fathom the
machinations of record company pricery
at the best of times, so I’ll just leave
that alone and talk about the well-chosen
programme this product presents. Works
span the period 1924 (Jazz Suite)-1937
(Pushkin Romances). A time of
change in both personal circumstances
and developing maturity as an artist,
so it is no surprise to learn that there
is a vast emotional range within the
71 minutes of this CD.
Here is the World Première
recording of the Suite from Hypothetically
Murdered. Gerald McBurney, an incredibly
knowledgeable Shostakovich expert, has
reassembled this work from a folder
of piano sketches, orchestrating using
contemporaneous theatre works as guide-lines.
Parts of the score reappear elsewhere
(in Lady Macbeth). What emerges,
aurally is in effect a succession of
fascinating snippets, each revealing
original possibilities never to be realised.
This is particularly true of the Soviet-sleaze
of the first number, ‘Transition to
the Field Hospital’. The ‘Gallop’ that
follows is an example of Shostakovich’s
frenetic mad-cap style, and drips with
slapstick; hugely entertaining. The
‘Transition to the Field’ that follows
contrasts in its deliberately lumbering
gait.
Whether this score
repays repeated listening is up for
debate, but it contains a veritable
encyclopaedia of Shostakovich stock-vocab
in a virtuoso setting. Interesting to
see Petrushka (the name, not
the ballet) making an appearance in
Act 2 (track 6), Here he is jolly, but
the semantic weight of his name meant
that this reviewer found himself expecting
Stravinskian bitonality to impinge upon
proceedings; it doesn’t, by the way.
What we do get is an outrageous, almost
tipsy, clarinet part that slithers all
over the place. In fact, there is a
huge amount of wit in this glittering
score. The CBSO is more than happy to
show off its virtuoso credentials in
the ‘Storm’ (pictorial in its evocation);
Shostakovich is more than happy, in
turn, to show off his aural imagination
in the crazy, effects-laden, gestural
‘Paradise 1: the Flight of the Cherubim’
that opens the Act 3 music. A cheeky
allusion to ‘O du lieber Augustin’ is
Shostakovich at his most cheeky in a
movement arrestingly entitled, ‘The
Archangel Gabriel’s number’. Eye-opening
fun. The booklet includes a reproduction
of the striking 1930s poster for Hypothetically
Murdered – on the evidence of that
alone, it would appear that Shostakovich’s
music fitted like a glove.
The Pushkin Romances
represent another, darker, side
of this composer. They follow a fraught
period in Shostakovich’s life and the
texts chosen reflect a real isolation.
Pre-echoes of the Fifth Symphony exist
in the first song, ‘Rebirth’ (listen
to the string figures).
Here we have Shostakovich’s
orchestration of the first three songs
(String orchestra, clarinet and harp).
McBurney used a bass clarinet and orchestrated
the fourth song in the same style as
the first three, and this is what is
presented here. The aching solo violin
line of ‘Jealousy’ is particularly notable,
as is the resolute, ominous tread of
the final song representing the protagonist
tramping the noisy streets.
More overtly modernist
is the Five Fragments, Op. 42
(allegedly written in one day – July
9th, 1935!). This piece contains
much intimacy, almost as if Shostakovich
is saying that this is what he really
writes when he gets the chance. This
is a disturbing piece, make no mistake,
and probably for that I find it the
most memorable work on the disc. The
Andante (second movement) is
Stravinskian in a spiky sort of way,
while the desolate high violin lines
of the Largo (very well
played here) serve to underline the
solitary nature of this score. The wit
of the final, fifth movement seems a
long way off when you encounter this
Largo which seems to stretch
time; it is only 3’43 long, but feels
much more.
The famous Jazz
Suite is given with aplomb. McBurney
perceptively writes of an ‘undertow
of depth and darkness’, and how right
he is. Special mention should go to
the trumpeter.
The finale (‘Foxtrot
(Blues)’) is positively outrageous,
and doesn’t the CBSO just know it!.
A lovely way to end.
Colin Clarke
aDmitri Kharitonov (bass)