Shostakovich: Symphony No. 1 in F minor, Op. 10

“This splendid Dutch band and chorus are persuasive advocates for the “socialist” Second and Third, but they shine in a by turns dazzling and soulful account of the ever-astonishing First.” Sunday Times, 10th June 2012

“Wigglesworth's performance of the First Symphony particularly...seems intent on demonstrating how much that work does actually foreshadow what followed from the Fifth Symphony onwards...Wigglesworth and the Netherlands Radio Orchestra do a fine job in clarifying the tangled textures [of 2 & 3], and in making their choral finales seem a bit more than just propagandist doggerel.” The Guardian, 21st June 2012 ****

“Wigglesworth coaxes a wealth of detail out of his players, and they respond with gusto and agility. These details are persuasive on the level of characterisation too, and the overall pacing is also well judged...Among many highlights are the lusty singing of the Netherlands Radio Choir - a more plausible impersonation of revolution-inspired workers than any I can recall from a Western chorus” Gramophone Magazine, September 2012

“I don't recall being gripped quite as much by this work as in this present recording by Mark Wigglesworth and his Netherlands forces. Their relish in the Symphony's vibrant kaleidoscope of characters and colours, all caught in a fine recording, hold your attention - even throughout passages that sound less than inspired in other hands. Wigglesworth and his musicians are alive to every inflection.” BBC Music Magazine, October 2012 *****

“These are gripping performances, reported in superb sound and if you want Shostakovich’s first three symphonies in a package you shouldn’t hesitate. Perhaps it helps that Mark Wigglesworth has recorded these early works almost at the end of his slowly assembled cycle; is he able thereby to refract these scores through his experience of the later works?” MusicWeb International, June 2012

“even more than on their previous Shostakovich discs, the playing is fabulously crisp and committed, while the interpretations combine atmosphere and a sense of proportion – much to the benefit of the youthful First, which receives an eerily effective performance, free of exaggeration.” Financial Times, 19th February 2011 *****

“How good to be reminded by this fine addition to Vasily Petrenko and the Liverpool Philharmonic’s lauded Shostakovich cycle of just what an achievement the First Symphony really was...Both symphonies are given fabulously vibrant — and beautifully recorded — performances here.” Sunday Times, 6th March 2011 ****

“Petrenko musters his forces superbly in both scores, harnessing the orchestral virtuosity that each of them demands, and lending the maligned Third a plausible raison d’être...Petrenko judges it expertly, knowing precisely when to put the foot down and increase the horsepower just as instinctively as he can allow the music to brood or manifest its strangeness.” The Telegraph, 18th March 2011 *****

“Few performances capture [the First's] gawkiness as brilliantly as this new reading by Vasily Petrenko...[He] surely has the full measure of the music's timbral transgressions...At the same time, Petrenko brings out the formal transgressions, too, sharpening the music's breaks in continuity. Nor are the music's emotional incongruities tamed...[The Third] is a musical maelstrom, and Petrenko charges into the swirl without trepidation.” International Record Review, April 2011

“Every young composer needs the sensitive skill of Vasily Petrenko to join the dots of fits-and-starts inspiration, and I've never been more convinced by the whole, rather than just the isolated gestures, of the teenage Shostakovich's First Symphony. You hear more than ever how prophetic it is of things to come” BBC Music Magazine, May 2011 *****

“in the First Symphony, besides rapier-like flair and precision, there's a reflective streak behind the passionate lyricism that beautifully brings out the music's Tchaikovsky connection...This latest installment in Petrenko's Shostakovich cycle with the RLPO more than maintains the superb standard they've set already.” Classic FM Magazine, July 2011 ****

“Petrenko and the Royal Liverpudlians give us as fine a performance of the Third as we are likely to hear, and if they can’t make something more loveable from this symphony, it’s not their fault. The conducting is thoughtful, but with the salt of spontaneity. The chorus is excellent, with good body and diction. The orchestra sparkles.” MusicWeb International, January 2012

“Recorded at the new Mariinsky Concert Hall, adjacent to the historic “Imperial” theatre, these works are meat and drink for Gergiev’s outstanding Mariinsky players and bode well for what surely must become a complete cycle.” Sunday Times, 12th July 2009 ****

“Following hard on the heels of Mikhail Pletnev's fine SACD version of Shostakovich's 15th is this impressively recorded version of the same work made in the sumptuous acoustics of the new Mariinsky Concert Hall. Whereas Pletnev emphasises the grim, almost nightmarish imagery of the first movement, Gergiev is much more playful and skittish, and the crystal clear recorded focuses upon the chamber-like aspect of Shostakovich's scoring. In the darker resonances of the ensuing Adagio, Gergiev weaves a more continuous symphonic thread... although the warmer perspective of the Gergiev recording brings a much greater depth and impact to the Symphony's final despairing climax.” BBC Music Magazine, September 2009 *****

Rattle said of Symphony No. 14 “for me it’s the most important of his symphonies, because it reveals [Shostakovich] at his closest. Not only in the depth and darkness, but in the sudden irony, the sudden humour… you wouldn’t know where the next mood was going to come from. Very special.”

“…the Berlin strings catch every shade and dynamic under Rattle's rigorous direction, and the percussion resonates in Philharmonie acoustics. On a bonus disc comes a focused performance of the First Symphony, calculated in its fits and starts but always alive.” BBC Music Magazine, July 2006 ****

“Haitink favours long-term symphonic vision over the rhetoric of the moment in Shostakovich's early miracle and the mainstream Fifth, backed up by sophisticated playing and sound.” BBC Music Magazine, December 2012 ****