SHOSTAKOVICH: Symphony No. 1 in F Minor, Op. 10; Symphony No. 5 in D Minor, Op. 47 – London Philharmonic/ Kurt Masur – London Philharmonic

by | Jan 3, 2006 | Classical CD Reviews | 0 comments

SHOSTAKOVICH: Symphony No. 1 in F Minor, Op. 10; Symphony No. 5 in D Minor, Op. 47 – London Philharmonic/ Kurt Masur – London Philharmonic LPO 0001,  79:26 (Distrib. Harmonia mundi) ****:

Recorded live at Royal Festival Hall between 31 January and February 3, 2004, two of the more popular Shostakovich symphonies find idiomatic realization under Kurt Masur, with the lithe ironies of the F Minor alternately waltzing and sizzling. Masur seems intent to preserve the pungently transparent colors of the orchestration, the mix of clarinet, flute, solo violin (Boris Garlitsky), and celli that might owe something to ballet and hint at Bartok. March versus waltz becomes the order of the day. The delightful bite of the strings and obbligato piano in the A Minor Scherzo, while not in SACD sound, has the benefit of Mike Hatch’s broad sonic spectrum. Solo oboe in the D-flat Lento takes us to the lonely Russian steppe. Individual touches by the cello, solo violin, and the military battery provide solemn contrasts as well as the snare drum segue to the Lento–Allegro molto finale, whose Wagnerian, even Schoenbergian grumblings do wend their way to F Major, but a grim reconciliation it is.

The D Minor Symphony (1937) has, since the publication of the composer’s “Testimony,” taken on a revisionist perspective as a combination of Mahler’s D Major Symphony and emotional, political extortion. Masur’s approach for the first three movements is loving but literalist, played for brisk movement and linear architecture. The Largo has more than a touch of Mravinsky’s somber austerity. It is in the last movement, the “forced rejoicing” of the transition to D Major, that Masur expands the canvas, just after the first explosive peroration of horns and tympani. The pulsation almost stops, the mordants are unfolded like the tongues of chameleons, the tympani relentless in its softness. The funereal, excruciating pace resembles Scherchen leading Bach’s The Musical Offering. Never has Masur been so close to Celibidache in microcosmic, musical management.  As a testament to orchestral control and virtual discipline, this performance is either revelatory or completely wrong. The audience asserts Masur’s instincts are correct.

–Gary Lemco

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