| Review by Luukas July 17, 2015 (2 of 4 found this review helpful)
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Performance:  Sonics:  |
The Arnhem Philharmonic Orchestra has become world famous - thanks to the Exton label's flawless SACD recordings. The orchestra has recorded - for example - the critically acclaimed album of Mahler's Tenth Symphony (performing version by Samale/Mazzuca) with Martin Sieghart.
Nikolai Alexeev is an unknown conductor to me. This album is my first impression of his conducting style - and it wasn't very shining. The peaceful tempi - the total time of the symphony is nearly 60 minutes here [58 minutes, actually] - told their own stories about the interpretation. Alexeev's approach was quite closely with Karajan's classic account (DG).
Anyway, the first movement was the slowest what I had ever heard. Alexeev underlined its lyrical moments - sometimes the powerful climaxes were too weak. The second movement's tempo was also too slow: after the attractive opening the middle section was truly lazy. The third movement contained some good moments. The finale was too seriously performed: the Shostakovichian irony didn't come clear.
The recording - which was made in live - was simply brilliant: the sound was rich and deep, but it didn't cover the instrumental details.
We haven't yet an impressive SACD recording. Perhaps Pentatone will release the disc in their Shostakovich Series...
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