Known by its Stalin-era name of the Kirov when conductor Valery Gergiev recorded some Shostakovich for Philips more than a decade ago, the Mariinsky Orchestra is now issuing the complete Shostakovich symphonies on its own label of hybrid SACDs. This Sixth is one of the best in the catalog, but from the Fourth and Fifth emanates the air of routine, as though both conductor and orchestra are tired of having to go through them yet again. And lowering the enjoyment of the overall production are the grunts, groans, and murmurings from the podium that disturb at some of the most inopportune moments.
All 10 movements on these two discs are faster than those on Gergiev's earlier CDs. Recorded in 2001, the Fourth on Philips Shostakovich: Symphony: No. 4, spontaneous with knife-edged excitement, clocks in at 28:58, 8:01, and 27:20. This newer release from 2013 studio sessions is quicker at 27:06, 7:40, and 24:54. In the first movement, Gergiev more accurately observes the big drop in tempo at rehearsal No. 47 (12:08 in this recording), which he ran past on Philips. But in the series of six chords of increasing volume beginning at 19:46, the orchestra hardly reaches the quintuple-forte of the movement's climax at one measure before No. 91 (20:08). Gergiev's 7:40 second movement, the fastest I've heard, is too glib, skating along the surface. Among others, Valeri Polyansky's version on the Russian Vista Vera label Dmitri Shostakovich. Symphony No. 4 C-minor, op. 43. Valeri Polyansky, Conductor The State Academic is more eventful.
Gergiev's reading of the Fourth's last movement here is puzzling. Intonation problems surface (in the woodwinds at 4:15, for example; the solo trombone at 13:00), and the movement's climax that arrives at No. 238 (18:38) is compromised. After a too-rapid timpani duet, Gergiev ignores the brisk pace of dotted half-note = 100 beats per minute as written for the big chords, instead broadening the tempo considerably and increasing the volume above the fortissimo instruction, as he also did in his Philips recording. Under evident strain here, however, the brass waver out of tune, and rather than maintaining the elongated line -- or stopping for a remake -- Gergiev speeds up at 19:11 as though to let his musicians make it through the subsequent repetitions of those big chords faster. The coda, which begins at No. 246 (20:42) and is marked at a very slow dotted quarter-note = 50, receives a perfunctory reading, running forward in errant double-time as though everyone is just in a hurry to get to a dinner date. Overall, this is not an improvement over Gergiev's Philips recording, and the best recommendations remain Oleg Caetani Symphony 4 on an Arts Music hybrid SACD and Myung-Whun Chung Shostakovich: Symphony No. 4 ~ Chung / Philadelphia Orch. on Deutsche Grammophon.
Gergiev's new Fifth is even more of a letdown. It's an amalgam of two "live" 2012 recordings and one studio session. Perhaps the last movement was re-recorded in the studio to eliminate applause from whatever audience made the other sessions "live." Gergiev still takes the opening at twice the marked tempo, which unfortunately has become widespread performance practice. Maxim Shostakovich is one conductor brave enough to play the eighth note (not quarter note) = 76 that's clearly written at the beginning. At whatever tempo, the start should grab you by the throat, and the Mariinsky's doesn't. At the development section's beginning at No. 17 (7:11) with the piano entrance and the horns in the bass clef, however, the quickening of pace is well done. Gergiev pulls back nicely on the reins at No. 27, poco sostenuto (9:01) for the trumpet and drums march, a spot conductors often miss, but the effect is then spoiled by sour trumpet notes in the passage at 9:07. The blows that should pound like a hammer following the Largamente's anguished climax at No. 36 (10:34) are weak, and after the flute and horn duet's recapitulation of the "L'Amour" theme from Bizet's "Habanera" (at 11:47, after No. 39), the movement limps to a disinterested close. If this was the better of the two "live" performances ...
Citing all of Gergiev's vocal contributions up to this point would be beyond tedious, but they become quite distracting in the slow movement. At the outset, his "ach" exhalations are as loud as the violins and violas, and his ad libitum vocalise lessens the positive effect of many excellently executed passages. The movement's first climax at four measures after No. 82 (4:22) is strong, but the spell is broken by more podium noises just before the cello entry at No. 83 (4:35). The descending line of divided upper strings at 4:53 and 6:37 hypnotize -- until Gergiev's "ach" reappears an instant before the liturgical chords are reached at No. 86 (6:58). Despite string intonation problems a few measures after No. 88, around the 8:30 mark, everyone builds nicely to the second climax at No. 89 (8:56) -- and the following the xylophone passage, Gergiev's verbalizing after No. 90 (at 9:40 through the next minute or so) undercuts the mood that's been so well established. Those "ach" exhalations reappear at 13:28 and 13:34 to taint the movement's closing chords of benediction.
Then the finale charges forth like a herd of thundering elephants, as Gergiev tramples Shostakovich's carefully marked gradations of tempo increases. At No. 121 (7:28), the rising march that begins with a solo timpani is much faster than dotted quarter note = 100. Gergiev exaggerates the Molto ritenuto at six measures before No. 131 (9:30), then launches into the coda at No. 131 at his own tempo of around quarter note = 114 (sort of in between the two disputed markings of fast and slow endings), but then suddenly slowing for the final three measures in an unmarked ritardando to 98 bpm. This indifferent effort doesn't challenge Michael Tilson Thomas' shattering concert performance on Blu-ray Keeping Score-Shostakovich: Symphony No. 5 [Blu-ray] with the San Francisco Symphony; the recordings conducted by Mstislav Rostropovich; or Maxim's three recordings -- the first from 1970 Shostakovich: Symphony No. 5, Op. 47 / The Age of Gold: Polka / Suite from the Film Michurin, Op. 78, which deserves a Melodiya reissue; the 1990 Collins Classics recording that might be the best Dmitry Shostakovich: Symphony No. 5 in D minor, Op. 47 / Festive Overture, Op. 96 - Maxim Shostakovich with the London Symphony Orchestra, which has been reissued by Alto Shostakovich: Symphony 5; Gadfly Suite; and his concert recording with the Prague Symphony Orchestra that's available in his complete set Shostakovich: Complete Symphonies and also in individual issues.
With these unconvincing presentations from Mariinsky of the Fourth and Fifth, it might not matter that the Sixth (from two "live" 2013 sessions, miraculously without applause) is among the finest recordings available. Even Gergiev's occasional murmurings don't violate the sense of stillness he creates after the powerful climax from 5:36 to 6:06 in entries first by trumpet at No. 12, then strings and timpani, then trombone, and finally horns at No. 13. The beautiful cor anglais solo at No. 14 (6:39) looks forward to the more elaborate one by that instrument in the first movement of the Eighth Symphony, and the ensuing flute solo four measures after No. 16 is haunting. The central tam-tam tap at No. 23 (11:03) is considerably closer to the marked pianissimo than the fortissimo in Vladmir Jurowski's concert reading Shostakovich: Symphonies Nos. 6 & 14 with the London Philharmonic. (Kurt Sanderling with the former East German Berliner Sinfonie-Orchester Shostakovich Symphonies Nos. 1 & 6 - Kurt SAnderling (Berlin Classics) and Polyansky on Chandos Symphony 6 Op 93 / Execution of Stepan Razin also realize this often-misplayed moment quite well.) The tension of the extended, written-out flute cadenza and duet at No. 24 that follows is wonderfully accomplished. At a total time of 18:38, Gergiev achieves the desired illusion of stasis, of suspended and isolated anxiety. How Kondrashin knifes his way through this movement in 13 minutes or less still dumbfounds me.
Into this bleak interior landscape breaks an ideal second movement Allegro of 5:16, right on top of the score's quarter-note = 104, as the busy-ness of the outside world bursts in with a buzz of activity. The well-achieved quadruple-piano ending perfectly sets up the even more hectic pace (half-note = 168) of the 6:31-minute Presto finale. Better than any other recording I recall -- even the hard-driving Kondrashin couldn't quite take it up to tempo -- Gergiev actualizes the redoubling of external, whirlwind forces that seize control, until the hapless soul who was isolated and terrified in the first movement is finally danced to exhaustion and flung out into oblivion.
Whether Gergiev's outstanding Sixth is worth the two-disc price will depend on how much you value that symphony. If the other two recorded performances here are typical of what's on the big Shostakovich Blu-ray set The Shostakovich Cycle- Complete Syphonies & Concertos [Box Set] [Blu-ray] from Gergiev and the Mariinsky, then I might have saved myself a couple of hundred dollars by trying out these CDs first. But I'm pleased to have this Sixth, which approaches the very best of Sanderling and Polyansky. 曲目列表：
Disk 1
Sinfonie Nr. 4 c-moll op. 43
1. Allegretto, poco moderato - Presto
2. Moderato, con moto
3. Largo - Allegro
Disk 2
Sinfonie Nr. 5 d-moll op. 47
1. Moderato
2. Allegretto
3. Largo
4. Allegro non troppo
Sinfonie Nr. 6 h-moll op. 54
1. Largo
2. Allegro
3. Presto 试听：
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发表于 2020-3-8 20:02:45
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