Dmitri SHOSTAKOVICH (1906-1975)
Symphony No. 10 (1953)
Symphony No. 11 (1957)
No. 10: Gewandhausorchester
Leipzig/Franz Konwitschny (rec June 1954, Leipzig Kongreßhalle)
No. 11: Staatskapelle Dresden/Franz Konwitschny (rec May 1959, Dresden
Lukaskirche)
Documents series.
BERLIN CLASSICS 0090422BC
2CDs (CD1 50.42; CD2 64.11)
Berlin Classics are distributed in the UK by
The Complete Record Company Ltd
22 Prescott Place, London SW4 6BT
Tel +44 (0)20 7498 9666 fax +44 (0)20 7498 1828
Shostakovich's Ninth Symphony, with its knockabout high spirits, has about
it more of the circus than of the heroes' battlefield. At its premiere it
was met with consternation and then suspicion. Was this levity aimed at Stalin
or did it in some way suggest disrespect to the millions who had died in
the war with Germany? Official condemnation followed and the composer retreated
from the public eye producing two scores that helped in rapprochement with
the powers that were. These, the film score for The Fall of Berlin and
The Song of the Forests, both were spotlessly patriotic.
Stalin died in March 1953 and the Tenth Symphony was premiered by Mravinsky
in December 1953. Konwitschny made this recording only six months later.
His standpoint involves an approach broader in the slower movements and furiously
fast in the allegros. The Stalin portrayal in the second movement is over
and done with in 3.54; Kondrashin's 1973 Melodiya takes 4.07; Mravinsky's
1976 BMG version 4.05. Konwitschny is aided by a mono recording of arresting
clarity and weighty impact - listen from 11.53 to the end in the
Andante-Allegro. By the way I owe it to Konwitschny version for pointing
up the strong stylistic parallels with the orchestral Prokofiev at this point
in the finale. Going by the stunning sound quality of a number of Berlin
Classics releases the East Germans from the 1940s onwards had top-flight
engineers and matériel. The orchestra is in good though not virtuoso
form (at 5.10 in the Andante-Allegro the flute cannot articulate the
composer's cruel flurrying figures). The Tenth, by the way, is the first
of his works to use the composer's musical paraph DSCH.
The Eleventh I was able to compare with Mravinsky's 1967 Praga, Berglund's
EMI from 1978 and Kondrashin's BMG. Kondrashin is driven and coarse grained
with the symphony despatched in 53.57, Mravinsky in 60.49 and Konwitschny
in a grave 64.11 though still quicker than Berglund's very successful version
which takes 66.37. Here the conductor swaps orchestras to the Dresden
Staatskapelle and this time (though not so declared) the recording seems
to be in two channels. It is technically wonderful having probing depth exploited
to the full in a performance in which every one of the four movements is
taken at an expansive pace. This stretches cogency to breaking point in The
Palace Square (16.20). Note as a positive point, among many, the squat barking
brass at 7.10 in the 9 January movement. The pictorial aspects of
the symphony are emphasised by Konwitschny's towering deliberation. This
purposely expansive epic approach - think of Konwitschny in this work as
a pre-echo of late Bernstein - is belted out or whispered with concentration
and conviction.
A musical coincidence: Has anyone noticed how the first two bars of the Tenth
sound uncommonly like the rocking glittering motif from Bax's
Tintagel.
The Berlin Classics notes are by Hans Bitterlich and are well worth a second
look.
Berlin Classics used No Noise technology in the digital remastering of both
symphonies. Each sounds clean, strong and natural.
Konwitschny and the Leipzig and Dresden orchestras freshen and fill out our
vision. The Tenth is good but lacks the gripping mordancy of Mravinsky. The
Eleventh goes well with such an expansive controlling hand and I would recommend
it for those jaded with Haitink, Kondrashin or Mravinsky. The de Preist/Helsinki
version on Delos and the EMI Berglund remain as the versions of single
choice.
It is worth hearing what artists from an Eastern Bloc satellite made of such
ikonic works of the 20th century. Konwitschny shows himself just as adept
and engaged in these bitter symphonies as in his 'trademark' Beethoven and
Schumann.
Rob Barnett
Berlin Classics - Edel products cannot yet be ordered directly from the
website.
Enquiries can be addressed to Edel affiliates in UK and USA:
edel UK ltd.
12, Oval Road
NW1 7DH London
phone: 0044 207 48 24 848
fax: 0044 207 48 24 846
edel America Records, Inc.
1790 Broadway, 7th Floor
New York, NY 10019
phone: 001 212 5419700
fax: 001 212 6648391
