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Originally Posted by Facade19 /img/forum/go_quote.gif
Got a few more Shostakovich recordings.
Listened to both Karajan's and Jarvi's 10th and there is no comparison. I prefer the Jarvi 10th over all I have heard so far (Karajan, Ashkenazy and Haitink). I never understood the 10th, until I listened to Jarvi. Shoot Haitink makes the whole 10th "boring", lacking in the terror and symbolic victory of DSCH over Stalin.
Also got the Bernstein/CSO DG recordings of the 1st/7th. Haven't listened to it yet, but will soon. Overall I want more recordings of DSCH symphonies. Once I got some money to spend I am going to get Jarvi's 4th, 8th, 11th, 12th, 13th, 14th and 15th. Will most likely get the Jansons set, Gergiev's 4th and 7th and if I can get Barshai's set. I am in a DSCH symphonic addiction (not a good place to be in).
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I agree that Jarvi makes more of #10 than Haitink,
as does Jansons thus a reason to get his set, and especially get it for his #8,
and his #4 is listenable.
The first #10 that made sense to me is Svetlanov's Russian recording, which I have on a Melodiya LP - I do not know if it has been released on CD.
Mine is his Studio recording - there is also a live concert recording of #10 with Svetlanov.
It has been released on CD, but I have not heard it.
I have been listening to Maxim Shostakovich's complete set for about a year now.
His of #10 is quite different to other versions I have heard, but I find it quite captivating. He brings out music in parts of the work that some other conductors seem to disregard and those conductors emphasize mostly the louder sections.
Maxim also does this with #7, and makes a good case for really listening to the 2nd; 3rd; 4th movements, as distinct from simply having them as an add-on to the popular 1st movement.
Maxim's performance of #4 is now one of my favourites - this really is a very good and heartfelt performance of the actual music, as distinct from simply using it as a show-piece for one's conducting abilities, or for pushing one's mistaken interpretive ideas onto it, which Gergiev does and thereby simply displays his own ridiculous ego !
Jarvi is good with #4, but don't waste your money on Gergiev's, unless you've heard it and actually like the mess he makes of it.
If you want to hear Gergiev conducting Shostakovich, then try his of #7 because the 1st movement of that work may allow for Gergiev's ego and not be too spoiled by it, however I can't predict what he will do with the other movements ...
Back to Maxim's set :-
his performance of #5 makes sense to me, and more than most others, and I have heard numerous versions of this work.
One enjoyable alternate version is Andre Previn's first recording, on RCA and recently re-issued at budget price -{RCA/BMG}- and his has a very fast 4th movement, for listeners who prefer it that way, though I don't and am content with Maxim's if I have to listen to this movement.
Bernstein's original of #5 is melodramatic, as was Bernstein in nature at times and that is OK when it suits the music, but I don't think it does here.
Maxim brings out the real beauty in the 3rd movement, as music, and not as B-grade melodrama.
The only caveat with Maxim's versions are that he knows what the music is really about, and this may not be what some listeners want to hear,
and indeed one may not always enjoy what the music is about, thus for some of the symphonies you will not hear what you have been led to believe by some other conductors.
With regard to other valid conductors, Maxim is different to Kondrashin, Mravinsky, Rozhdestvensky -{and as they are all to each other}- and quite validly I think, as he seems to be applying some of the music to our beginning 21st Century world, and I think that is valid for parts of some of the works as his father would have considered today's events if alive and composing now.
An occasional problem is that these are live concert performances, thus one gets to hear the occasional less than absolute perfection of some instrumentalists' performances, and sometimes it takes the orchestra a little time to really get into the full depth of the music - such as in #15 the 1st movement is less than it should be, but the orchestra improves in the second movement, and soon the performance becomes gripping, and by the end it is devastating ! , -{albeit in keeping with the music of this work - don't expect explosions - but you may be somewhere you didn't expect to be after listening through this}.
Most of the performances in this set are not of the knock-you-over/shock tactics type,
which some conductors' versions are but some of those are quite superficial and have little or no depth into the substance of the music.
Maxim seems to have thought a lot about how he was going to conduct these works, and that becomes apparent after several listenings,
however, you may not actually like all parts of all of them - I don't - but I'm happy to have the set for reference, and there is plenty I do like about it.
