Post by Castor January 31, 2005 (1 of 5)
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I heard the whole of the second movement of this on BBC Radio 3 last week and could not believe how poor it was. The music was pulled about in a bizarre manner and the sound was so dry that I thought there must have been a fault with the broadcast and/or my tuner.
Today I received the March edition of the Gramophone and David Fanning confirmed my findings. "...quite horribly recorded..." and "All front-desks, all foreground, no atmosphere whatsoever. The Barbican Hall acoustic may be problematic, but it's certainly not as bad as it sounds here"
Whether it will sound much better on SACD is anyone's guess, but I, for one, won't be finding out!
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Post by raffells January 31, 2005 (2 of 5)
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Castor said:
I heard the whole of the second movement of this on BBC Radio 3 last week and could not believe how poor it was. The music was pulled about in a bizarre manner and the sound was so dry that I thought there must have been a fault with the broadcast and/or my tuner.
Today I received the March edition of the Gramophone and David Fanning confirmed my findings. "...quite horribly recorded..." and "All front-desks, all foreground, no atmosphere whatsoever. The Barbican Hall acoustic may be problematic, but it's certainly not as bad as it sounds here"
Whether it will sound much better on SACD is anyone's guess, but I, for one, won't be finding out!
I know this is only partly relevant to this.... but,,,I have a vinyl version of Rostropovitch conducting this work with the Washington Nat Symphony Orchestra. The reason I mention it is that I have several version of this symphony and have discussed this version with people "in the Know" and he is supposed to have inner knowledge of what the composer actually meant in this work..I look forward to comparing this latest version with the DGG version against my other favourite versions soon.. My only comment is it is a digital DGG Lp from 1983..enough said.... Dave
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Post by seth January 31, 2005 (3 of 5)
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raffells said:
I have several version of this symphony and have discussed this version with people "in the Know" and he is supposed to have inner knowledge of what the composer actually meant in this work..
Yes, yes, Rostropovich and Shostakovich were close friends, he understood what it was like to live under the communist authorities...
IMO, Rostropovich isn't quiet the Shostakovich conductor he's touted to be (or even all that great of a conductor). I've heard him conduct Shostakovich's 9th live like 5 years ago, and it was a total mess. He conducted by memory, which seemed to be a mistake; there were times where he was clearly a few seconds behind the orchestra.
The 5th is a festive piece, meant to redeem himself (Shostakovich) after coming under heavy scorn for the 4th symphony. It's great music, but I don't think it takes any special interpretative insight to pull off well. Also, I think it's a mistake to try and infuse what conductor's think Shostakovich's exact feelings towards the communist authorities were at the time of composition into the music. Or in other words, sometimes it's best not to think too much about his complex biography.
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Post by Johnno February 2, 2005 (4 of 5)
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I've got his "Leningrad" with the Washingtion NSO and that's not a bad performance at all. However, I really am finding his LSO 11th hard to take, though. Far too mannered, in my opinion.
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Post by raffells February 2, 2005 (5 of 5)
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seth said:
Yes, yes, Rostropovich and Shostakovich were close friends, he understood what it was like to live under the communist authorities...
IMO, Rostropovich isn't quiet the Shostakovich conductor he's touted to be (or even all that great of a conductor).
The 5th is a festive piece, meant to redeem himself (Shostakovich) after coming under heavy scorn for the 4th symphony. It's great music, but I don't think it takes any special interpretative insight to pull off well. Also, I think it's a mistake to try and infuse what conductor's think Shostakovich's exact feelings towards the communist authorities were at the time of composition into the music. Or in other words, sometimes it's best not to think too much about his complex biography.
The conversation I was listening to, was in respect to Mvrinskys conducting .As he spent a lot of time with Shostyk and the conversation slipped into the fact that post Glaznost, Rostro apparantly managed to talk to Dmitri about the 5th symphony and its inner meaning......It was suggested that Shostakovitch was still bitter at the regime when he wrote it and certain references within the symphony were made were meant to be beyond the understanding of the committees of approval...I was fascinated at this, having also found Rostros 5th with The Washington somewhat of an Emigma, with some of the tunes pulled about as stated...I kept the lp as a totally differnt 5th to my reference 5ths..Having just played them all again I await someones disection of the m eanings of these subtle differences...Dave
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