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Shostakovich: Symphonies 3 & 10 - Gergiev

Shostakovich: Symphonies 3 & 10 - Gergiev

Mariinsky  MAR0511

Stereo/Multichannel Hybrid

Classical - Orchestral


Shostakovich: Symphony No. 3, Symphony No. 10

Mariinsky Orchestra
Valery Gergiev (conductor)


The Third Symphony was first performed in January 1930, its final movement setting a text by Semyon Isaakovich Kirsanov praising May Day and the revolution. Shostakovich stated that the work "expresses the spirit of peaceful reconstruction" and yet much of the music is dark and sombre in tone.

The Tenth Symphony is one of his most popular and frequently heard works. It was first performed in December 1953 following Stalin's death earlier that year, although Shostakovich had been working on much of the material incorporated in the symphony for many years. The great Russian soprano Galina Vishnevskaya claimed that the symphony was "a composer's testament of misery, forever damning a tyrant".

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Recorded at the Mariinsky Concert Hall, St Petersburg, 22-24 June 2010

Producer: James Mallinson
Engineers: Jonathan Stokes for Classic Sound Ltd
Editing: Jonathan Stokes and Neil Hutchinson for Classic Sound Ltd
Reviews (1)
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Review by Graham Williams - May 18, 2011

As with the previous two issues in his on-going cycle of the Shostakovich symphonies with the Orchestra of the Mariinsky Theatre, Valery Gergiev has coupled one of the composer’s early and late symphonies.

The Symphony No. 3 subtitled ‘The First of May’ dates from 1929 and is generally regarded as one of the weakest of Shostakovich’s output. Like its predecessor, it attempted to combine the young composer’s forward-looking ideas with something that would appeal to the revolutionary aspirations of the Soviet authorities, with decidedly mixed results. On this recording Gergiev respectfully treats the work as the masterpiece it undoubtedly is not.

Thanks to his adoption of generally swift tempi throughout, he manages to bring a certain degree of coherence to the elaborate polyphony of this single movement symphony (accorded three separate tracks on this recording). In this he is aided by splendidly idiomatic playing from the Orchestra of the Mariinsky Theatre. The playing of the wind and brass sections is keenly incisive while the strings are insinuatingly smooth. The percussion is also very well captured by the engineers, particularly the glockenspiel, cymbals and side drum in the Allegro section (track 2) although the massive bass drum thwacks have a rather unimpressively dead sound.

The Mariinsky Theatre Chorus delivers the final chorus, a setting of a rather banal text by Semyon Kirsanov, a poet of the people, with full-throated enthusiasm before blazing trumpets, bring this empty piece to a rousing conclusion. No wonder, according to Maxim Shostakovich, his father made him promise never to conduct it.

Following the death of Stalin in 1953 the Symphony No. 10 appeared. The composer had not written a new symphony for eight years but the wait was worth it as the tenth is definitely among the composer’s finest works.

I had hoped that this, Gergiev’s first recording of the work, would be prove to be outstanding, but alas that hope was soon dashed. The brooding opening movement starts well thanks to Gergiev’s adoption of a flowing tempo; a true moderato, that he maintains over the 22’52” span, and one admires his command of the music’s structure. However, disappointment with the recording quality quickly emerges. There is a lack of impact and presence to the sound, so the huge climaxes make a limited rather than overwhelming impact. Turning up the volume control to a considerable degree does help a little, but the general impression remains of an opaque, amorphous recorded sound.

The brief scherzo that follows confirms the limitations of both the recording and performance, particularly when compared with the recently issued electrifying account by my ‘local’ orchestra, the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic and Vasily Petrenko, sadly not available on SACD. Here, the Mariinsky account sounds almost diffident and it never recovers from the lack of ferocity in the opening bars.

Gergiev and his orchestra are heard at their best in the two final movements. The mysterious Allegretto third movement with its Mahlerian horn calls builds to a magnificent whirlwind climax and Gergiev beautifully creates the bleak atmosphere of the finale’s opening with its desolate oboe solo. Here the Gergiev’s’s vocalisations hardly disturb, nor does the discreet cough at 4’05”but it does perhaps betray the fact that these recordings are based to some extent on live performances.

Those who are satisfied with the two earlier Mariinsky releases in this cycle Shostakovich: Symphonies 1 & 15 - Gergiev and Shostakovich: Symphonies 2 & 11 - Gergiev will find little to complain about and much to enjoy in Gergiev’s interpretations.

Copyright © 2011 Graham Williams and HRAudio.net

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Sonics (Multichannel):

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