Dunelm Records is, as you may or not know, a "cottage
industry", run by Jim and Joyce Patterson from Glossop in the High Peak
area of Derbyshire. Their CDs are home produced, from the recording,
artwork and printing down to the actual CD burning; this is the second
in their series devoted to the symphonies of Shostakovich. It presents
a compelling case for a work which has never ranked very highly with
this listener, ever since my first encounter as a teenager (Berglund
on EMI/HMV), and also showcases the mainly amateur London Shostakovich
Orchestra very effectively.
I had a little trouble with my initial listening, as
the CD-R crackled and hissed continually on my personal CD player. Fortunately,
my main system player performed perfectly, allowing a proper judgement
to be formed. The fact that the recording was made live at a public
performance does mean that certain allowances have to be made for the
sound (e.g., as noted in the booklet, extraneous noise from various
sources) but the passion, feeling, emotion (whatever you want to call
it) more than compensates for this.
One of my long-standing reservations about this music
has been the repetitive "invasion theme", always cheap sounding to these
ears. As expected, this reading did not really do anything to reinforce
or refute these feelings and the booklet notes cover the passage in
some detail, including Bartók's alleged parodying of it in Concerto
for Orchestra. It remains difficult to disentangle the symphony
from the conditions (the siege of Leningrad) that surrounded its genesis
and this is something the extensive notes clearly take as read (and
they are among the most informative and exhaustive as I have seen in
recent times). There is little attempt to present the music as "just
music" and maybe that is indeed a pointless exercise but the inclusion
of the main jewel case back cover insert photograph is perhaps unnecessarily
extreme. Anyway, the performance of the symphony as a whole is as good
as (or probably better) than you might expect from a mainly amateur
band, the dedication and feeling the players have for the music is tangible
but, in the final analysis, it is the sort of work which people will
either enjoy or not enjoy and any number of performances/recordings
(good, bad or indifferent) is unlikely to alter those views. The slow
third movement (Adagio) is usually my "favourite" when I hear
the symphony and that remains true here; others may find different and
greater listening pleasures but give me the Fifth any day (or,
even better, some of the chamber music). I am not a complete Shostakovich
convert but he did write some great music; he also wrote some fairly
mediocre music too and personally I have to count this symphony in the
latter category, his Pomp and Circumstance, perhaps, as opposed
to Introduction and Allegro. I am convinced that, at the time,
its patriotic and propaganda value was immense and, for that reason,
the symphony will always be special to many people; as an outsider on
that experience, I can never perceive it in quite the same way.
Neil Horner
DUNELM RECORDS: LIST OF
SHOSTAKOVICH RECORDINGS: 2005
All made at St. Cyprian’s Church, Glentworth
Street, London
KHACHATURIAN: Suite No.2 from the ballet ‘Spartacus’
[21:48]
BARBER: Concerto for violin and orchestra
[24:08]
SHOSTAKOVICH: Symphony No.6 in B minor, Op.65
[30:56]
Adrian Varela (violin)
London Shostakovich Orchestra/Christopher
Cox
Recorded "live" 19 May 2001
DUNELM DRD0173 [77:19]
Reviews: C
H Loh, DSCH Journal http://www.opus147.free.fr/reviews16.htm
SHOSTAKOVICH
Symphony No.7 in C major [‘Dedicated to the
city of Leningrad’] [73:03]
London Shostakovich Orchestra/Christopher
Cox
Recorded "live" 18 May 2002
DUNELM DRD0184 [73:03]
Reviews:
http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2003/Feb03/1aFeb03-5.htm
http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2003/Feb03/shost7dunelm.htm
SHOSTAKOVICH
Piano Concerto No. 2 in F major, Op. 102:
(‘To Maxim Dmitrievich Shostakovich’) [20:32]
Symphony No. 11 in G minor, Op.103, ‘The Year
1905’ [67:27]
Marina Primachenko (piano)
London Shostakovich Orchestra/Christopher
Cox
Recorded "live" 9 November 2002.
DUNELM DRD0193 [2 CDs: 87:59]
Reviews:
http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2003/Jun03/shost11dunelm.htmhttp://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2003/Jun03/1aJun03-5.htm
SHOSTAKOVICH:
Symphony No. 11 in G minor, Op.103, ‘The Year
1905’ [67:27]
London Shostakovich Orchestra: Conductor:
Christopher Cox; Leader: Jonathan Lee
Recorded "live" 9 November 2002.
DUNELM DRD0193B [67:27]
SHOSTAKOVICH
Symphony No.4 in C minor, Op.43 [63:39]
London Shostakovich Orchestra: Conductor:
Christopher Cox; Leader: Louise Lee
Recorded "live" 8 November 2003
DUNELM DRD0216B [63:39]
Review:
http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2004/Jun04/Shostakovich4_Dunelm.htm
SHOSTAKOVICH
Concerto for cello and orchestra No.1 in E
flat, Op.107 [28:46]
Symphony No.5 in D minor, Op.47 [55:33]
Jonathan Ayling (cello)
London Shostakovich Orchestra/Christopher
Cox
Recorded "live" 15 May 2004
DUNELM DRD0227 [2 CDs: 84:19]
Review:
BBC Music Magazine, November, 2004,
13, Number 3, p.63
SHOSTAKOVICH
Symphony No.5 in D minor, Op.47 [55:33]
London Shostakovich Orchestra/Christopher
Cox
Recorded "live" 15 May 2004
DUNELM DRD0227B [55:33]
PRICES:
Single CDs: £10.95 (inclusive of postage and
packing in the UK)
Dual sets of 2 CDs: £16.95 (inclusive of postage
and packing in the UK)
London Shostakovich Orchestra/Christopher
Cox