The Fourth Symphony of Shostakovich is an extraordinary work by
any standards. It is cast in three movements, with each of the
outer two approaching half an hour in duration, astride a shorter
central scherzo. Together these occupy a playing time in excess
of an hour. There is a huge orchestra, numbering some 140 players,
so that the range of timbres and colours can be very wide indeed,
while the climaxes are overwhelmingly powerful. More significant
than any of these issues is the nature of the music itself, since
the development is flexible and remarkably open-ended, veering
this way and that, through passages slow and fast, thinly scored
then richly powerful. It is something of a roller-coaster ride
for both the musicians and the audience.
No wonder the Symphony has experienced a chequered
career. Shostakovich withdrew it in 1936, when it was already
in rehearsal for its first performance. This decision had
more to do with the infamous attack on him by Stalin in the
pages of Pravda than with musical problems during the
rehearsal period. After Stalin had launched his vitriolic
feelings - 'Not music but a mess' - about the opera Lady
Macbeth of Mtsensk, the composer knew that he was a marked
man. And a challenging, modernist symphony was not a wise
proposition therefore. Thus the Fourth did not receive its
premiere until 1961, a full 25 years after it was written,
and Shostakovich achieved a rehabilitation with his Fifth
Symphony of 1937: 'A Soviet Artist's Response to Just Criticism'.
The nature of the Fifth and whether that title is a decoy
is another matter altogether.
The Fourth Symphony has fared rather well as far
as recordings are concerned. Any live performance has to be
a special occasion because of the costs involved in assembling
such a large orchestra, and perhaps that is why live performances
have often been linked with recordings. In this, his first
purely orchestral symphony for ten years, Shostakovich wrote
the music he wanted to write. The style follows that of the
opera Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk and the ballet The
Bolt, and is therefore expressively potent and orchestrally
colourful. The very opening confirms all this, and immediately
throws down the gauntlet to the recording engineers, with
the huge percussive chord that follows the opening phrase.
The BIS recording is suitably spectacular and sensitive, and
meets every requirement: it is responsive to detail and has
a particularly full and accurate dynamic range.
The challenges in performing this music are twofold:
the orchestra must reach heights of discipline and virtuosity,
and the conductor must hold the music in a vision of symphonic
continuum and growth. This performance fares well in both
respects. The Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra plays
magnificently, both as individuals and as a team. Mark Wigglesworth
is particularly associated with Shostakovich, and is a conductor
of the first rank.
In the mammoth outer movements,
both more than twenty minutes in duration, the tempi tend
to be broader than some performances, though there is such
an ebb and flow of tension and relaxation that such glib generalizations
mean relatively little. What is most remarkable about this
interpretation is the sureness of line and how it combines
with attention to detail, both in the performance and thanks
to the recording. Nor does this imply sacrifice to sheer impact;
the power is imposed as soon as the opening subject is heard.
The first movement contains one of the symphonic literature’s
greatest challenges to orchestral strings: a wild fugue at
the fastest of speeds. It is a case of ‘who dares wins’, and
Wigglesworth challenges his excellent orchestra to play with
the utmost energy and commitment. That said, there are other
recorded performances which convey an even more intense range
of extremes. Valeri Gergiev with the Kirov Orchestra (Philips
4756190) is particularly compelling in this sense, but the
sense of symphonic growth feels less of a priority than it
does for Mariss Janssons and the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra
(EMI 5578242), another conductor of a very special performance
of this work.
In any symphony since Beethoven, the resolution
and justification of the journey is an issue of much import. Wigglesworth
triumphs in this sense, and his release of the climactic chorale
in the finale is wonderfully done. For example, when this closing
phase takes over the musical line, the clarity of the ostinato
played by the timpani (two players) is marvellously clear and
articulate. This is also true of Bernard Haitink’s recording with
the Chicago Symphony Orchestra (CSOR901814) but his tempo is rather slower. Wigglesworth,
then, has given us a great performance of a symphony that can
be claimed as Shostakovich’s greatest. As with any masterpiece,
the best performance is always ‘the next one’, but this will do
for now.
Terry Barfoot
Netherlands Radio Philharmonic
Orchestra/Mark Wigglesworth
[66:44] 
