Two pre-Pearl Harbor performances of the Shostakovich
wartime symphonies and another from after the USA's entry into
the war.
These are not perfect examples of the recording art of the late
1930s into 1940s. They are of predominantly historic interest
for out-and-out Shostakovich fans. Even so M&A’s contractors
- including Mark Obert-Thorn in the case of CD 1 - have ministered
tenderly and very effectively to these documents of the Soviet
symphony in the USA and others will also derive pleasure from
the vibrancy of symphonies 5 and 7.
The
Fifth Symphony is given in a version that majors on
sombre intensity and brooding romantic power. As an illustration
try the third movement at 2:09 with those singing high tensile
violins. The brass are caught in superb heart at the start of
the romping finale with incredible unanimity.
The
Sixth Symphony - especially its arching first movement
- sings out with Brucknerian amplitude yet without the blaze
of heat which both Mravinsky and Svetlanov light under that
Largo.
Much to my surprise Stokowski adopts a looser hand than he does
in the first movement of the Fifth. The lighter playfulness of
the symphony's
Allegro and
Presto is made more
of and because the
Largo is taken at a slacker state the
three movements dovetail more cogently than usual. In fact the
two movements after the
Largo sound more akin to Prokofiev
than usual. Their playfulness looks forward to Prokofiev’s
Seventh Symphony.
For disc 2 we leave the restorative work of Mark Obert-Thorn
and become acquainted with that of N.N and Kit Higginson. Despite
Stokowski's pleas and his longstanding connection with the composer
the NBC, who had bought the performing rights for the Seventh
in the USA, allocated its premiere on 19 July 1942 to Toscanini.
But Shostakovich condemned Toscanini’s superficiality.
Toscanini himself - who had beaten off Stokoswki for the honour
of the premiere - later could not believe that he had lavished
time in learning what he then claimed was 'such trash'. The Toscanini
premiere has been issued commercially by RCA so you can form
your own impressions if you can track it down. Stokowski, much
favoured by Shostakovich, had his version lauded to the skies
when he conducted it with the NBCSO on 13 December 1942. This
is what we hear on this second disc. As an audio document it
is flawed, brittle and bristle-brush noisy. Yet in the hands
of the Higginsons the music signal emerges with unapologetic
immediacy. It sounds good for example in the first movement -
the start of the side-drum ostinato even if the music has to
compete with audience coughing. It strikes me as the most musical
of performances capitalising on even the most inventively threadbare
passages in a work with its share of flag-snapping gaud. These
broadcast transcription discs have seen better days but thank
the heavens for whoever preserved them.
The really useful recording-specific notes are by David Patmore.
Get this single-width double CD set while you can. Here is history
made and in the making to be experienced again. These three recordings
are as important in their way as Bruno Walter's 1938 Mahler 9
in Vienna.
Rob Barnett
Philadelphia Orchestra (5 & 6), NBC Symphony
Orchestra (7)/Leopold Stokowski 
