BaL 05.04.25 - Shostakovich: Symphony 10

[Pulcinella]

As pointed out by Wolfram in the Bruckner S4 thread, a 'spoiler' posting on the Record Review site (mentioning a programme on 6 April instead) gives the pointer to this edition (and the winner!

A complete performance of yesterday's recommended recording of Shostakovich's 10th Symphony.

Edward Seckerson's personal choice of the ultimate version to buy, download or stream, Vasily Petrenko conducts the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic

Written in the wake of Stalin's death, it's even said the macabre second movement represents dancing on the dictator's grave!

Presto listing here:

https://www.prestomusic.com/classical/works/48229--shostakovich-symphony-no-10-in-e-minor-op-93/browse

The BBC MM CD offering (Volume 23, Number 8) is an Usher Hall, Edinburgh, recording from 28 September 2014, with the BBCSSO under Donald Runnicles.

Updated with web introductory material:

1500
Building a Library
Edward Seckerson chooses his favourite recording of Shostakovich's Symphony No.10 from the many available versions.

Dmitri Shostakovich's Symphony No.10 in E minor was premiered by the Leningrad Philharmonic Orchestra under Yevgeny Mravinsky on 17 December 1953. In his memoirs, the composer revealed that he "wrote it right after Stalin's death and no one has yet guessed what the symphony is about. It's about Stalin and the Stalin years. The scherzo is a musical portrait of Stalin" - a startlingly brutal and terrifying movement in a 45-minute symphony which vividly encapsulates the tragedy, despair and violence of the Soviet regime under which Shostakovich lived.



Winner details from updated website: sadly the intern has spelt the conductor's forename incorrectly.

First choice:
Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra
Vassily Petrenko (cond.)
Naxos 8572461

The recording is also available in the complete set:

https://www.prestomusic.com/classical/products/8077183--shostakovich-the-complete-symphonies

[Wolfram]

I suppose as most people now listen to RR on ‘catch-up’ as the inevitable consequence of the shift in broadcast time, the programme itself has become a spoiler. I listen on ‘catch-up’ myself about 50% of the time now, and like the famous episode of Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads I try to avoid the result before listening - with about as much success as Bob and Terry I might add. I usually stumble upon the winner inadvertently on this forum.

[Petrushka]

I think that the second movement is said to be a portrait of Stalin, while the finale sounds more like dancing on his grave.

I've not heard RLPO/Petrenko but perhaps I should as most other versions fail to satisfy in one way or another. I feel the need to go for the full Soviet experience with Svetlanov, Rozhdestvensky and Kondrashin though the downside is ropey sound.

[silvestrione]

As whoever was the reviewer last time pointed out, the second movement is far too exhilarating to be a Shostakovich portrait of Stalin!
(Though admittedly, Elim Chan and BBCSO last week on R3 made it pretty intense...)

[Pulcinella]

Some thoughts on the second movement in this Wiki article:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sympho..._(Shostakovich)

[Petrushka]

As whoever was the reviewer last time pointed out, the second movement is far too exhilarating to be a Shostakovich portrait of Stalin!
(Though admittedly, Elim Chan and BBCSO last week on R3 made it pretty intense...)

The second movement needs to sound totally vicious, almost unhinged, and then you get the 'portrait of Stalin'. Exhilarating? It should be like the hounds of Hell snapping at your heels!

[oliver sudden]

Was Stalin really known for furious scurrying about?

I find it telling that there is one verifiable extra-musical reference in the 10th—the encoding of ‘Elmira’ in the third movement—and Testimony somehow fails to mention it.

[Petrushka]

Was Stalin really known for furious scurrying about?

Perhaps more Shostakovich's feelings about Stalin then. I think he did the same thing in the 8th movement of the 14th Symphony, The Zaporozhian Cossacks' Reply to the Sultan of Constantinople.

[Pulcinella]

As well as the BBC MM CD, I have
WDR/Barshai
LPO/Haitink
Philadelphia O/Jansons
and
Halle/Skrowaczewski
here, the latter I seem to recall being highly recommended at some point!
Must stream the RLPO/Petrenko soon; I was tempted by that set as it came out (and not simply because it's my home town orchestra).

[smittims]

I've never gone in for interpreting Shostakovitch symphonies as if they were the soundtrack of Soviet Russia 1925-1973. I just listen to them as music. Shostakovitch himself told a friend that when he was sketching his seventth symphony he was reading the Psalms, and said ' if people read the psalms more they wouldn't write so much nonsense about my seventh symphony'.

I've always beem completely satisfied with either of Karajan's recordings of the tenth, though recently I've been pleasantly surprised by the old Philharmonia/ Efrem Kurtz (HMV) and a splendid off-air of Andrew Gourlay (an underrated conductor in my view. I'd like to see him as Chief Conductor , BBC S.O.) Incidentally,the British Premiere, in 1954 I think, was given by our old friends the LPO and Sir Adrian Boult.

[BillMatters]

I have always thought the second movement was more a portrait of those who had to work for Stalin, i.e. rushing around to do his bidding and thereby stay alive.

[makropulos]

I don’t have many versions but my long-time favourite is Ančerl and the Czech PO on DG. A tremendous performance.

[gradus]

Its one of those spectacular concert hall pieces that I would always try to attend simply to hear a great orchestra at full stretch. I have the Ancerl and several other recorded performances but its Haitink and the LPO live in the nineties at the RFH that stick in the memory.

[Roger Webb]

Its one of those spectacular concert hall pieces that I would always try to attend simply to hear a great orchestra at full stretch. I have the Ancerl and several other recorded performances but its Haitink and the LPO live in the nineties at the RFH that stick in the memory.

I've had Previn/LSO (ASD 4405) by the turntable for a while...good Abbey Rd recording Prod. Suvi Raj Grubb, Eng. Chris Bishop. Previn did a few for EMI mainly in the early 80s, 8, 13, 6 and 5, which I saw him conduct live.....in the first half Beethoven Vln. conc. with his future wife Anne Sofie Mutter....in an emerald gownless evening strap!

[Alain Maréchal]

The second movement needs to sound totally vicious, almost unhinged, and then you get the 'portrait of Stalin'. Exhilarating? It should be like the hounds of Hell snapping at your heels!

Kondrashin and the Moscow Philharmonic achieve that.