Naxos continues its series of top-notch Shostakovich symphony
recordings by Vasily Petrenko and the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic
with two of the composer’s most unusual works. Of the two, the
Sixth has continued to gain in popularity and is performed now
quite often in the major concert halls throughout the world.
The Twelfth, for obvious reasons, has not shared this fate.
For me, the Sixth is one of Shostakovich’s greatest purely orchestral
symphonies, right up there with the Symphonies Nos. 4, 8, 10,
and 15. After answering his critics and the Stalinist party
apologists with this Fifth Symphony, which immediately became
one his most popular works, the successor was something of an
enigma — though it, too, was very well received at its premiere
performance. Its first movement Largo was perhaps his most profound
symphonic statement up to that time. And what did Shostakovich
do? He followed it with two short movements, one witty, the
other humorous and boisterous. I think he was making a powerful
statement here in answering his earlier critics: “I did what
you asked in the Fifth and now I’m doing it my way!” At least,
that’s how I see it. Shostakovich was never anything if not
ironic. The work may at first seem unbalanced, but it makes
perfect sense in a Shostakovich sort of way. Petrenko here does
not disappoint. He captures all the power and bleakness of the
opening movement with a tempo that is slower than most. Only
Jurowski (19:59) and Boult (20:02) take longer with it. He finds
tempos closer to the norm in the following movements and captures
all the joy and humor there. The playing of the Royal Liverpool
Philharmonic is beyond reproach. I would refer you to John
Quinn’s review of this disc for his discussion of some of
the highlights in Petrenko’s account of this symphony. I will
now turn to the other symphony on the CD.
Many consider the Twelfth to be Shostakovich’s weakest symphony,
and I am not one to disagree with this opinion in general. Yet,
I must say that Vasily Petrenko in this blistering account almost
convinces me otherwise. I have listened to it several times
and, though the ending is almost too bombastic to bear, Petrenko
brings out all kinds of detail to make the work interesting.
I compared this with Haitink’s Concertgebouw recording on a
disc that also includes a powerful performance of the Sixth.
Where Petrenko surpasses Haitink in the Twelfth is in his lighter
approach. He beats Haitink by almost 8 minutes in overall timing,
but tempos alone don’t tell the whole story. Petrenko treats
the work as a symphony and leaves most of the political baggage
behind. Even in the fourth movement one is drawn to many instrumental
moments of real beauty, for example, the horn solo at 3:26 followed
by trumpet at 3:40; the horns again at 5:13 and the rapt strings
at 6:07. Maybe this is a case where the whole is not greater
than or even equal to the sum of its parts, but there are some
really tremendous parts in this work. If one wants to observe
the October Revolution of 1917, Shostakovich’s later tone poem
October would seem a better choice, as the work
is under 13 minutes and captures the revolutionary spirit as
well if not better than this symphony. Still, I know I will
turn to Petrenko just to appreciate what he has done to make
the symphony palatable.
As is the custom with Naxos, production values are not shortchanged
either. The CD comes with a cardboard sleeve with Petrenko’s
photo in full color and then the foldout insert itself has a
memorable black and white photo of the composer and detailed
notes by Richard Whitehouse. I won’t be tossing out my Haitink
recording of these symphonies, but Petrenko’s accounts must
now take pride of place. At budget price, this disc is unmissable.
Leslie Wright
see also review by John
Quinn
Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra/Vasily Petrenko 
