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See Terms & Conditions for p&p rates. | |  | Shostakovich: Symphonies Nos. 1-3
Mark Wigglesworth continues his Shostakovich cycle on BIS, performing with the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra and Choir Symphonies Nos. 1 to 3 The First Symphony was in fact the graduation piece that completed his studies at the Leningrad Conservatory, but to quote Mark Wigglesworth, ‘Shostakovich’s trade-mark musical gestures are all immediately obvious’ and was an immediate success. The Second and Third symphonies are still rarely performed in concert. At least nominally, there is a political theme to both works - the Second was a commission from the State Publishing House to honour the tenth anniversary of the October Revolution and The Third, with its subtitle ‘The First of May’, was a celebration of the international Worker’s Day. “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 ***** “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 “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 “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 **** | | | (also available to download from $10.50) | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
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| |  | Shostakovich: Symphonies Nos. 3 & 10dsd recording, Mariinsky Concert Hall, St Petersburg, 2009-2010
For the the third title in his Shostakovich symphony cycle, Valery Gergiev again couples two works from different stages in the composer’s career. Although Shostakovich’s symphonies are usually highly programmatic, the Third and Tenth Symphonies are amongst his most enigmatic works. Symphony No. 3 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 the death of Stalin, 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.” Previous releases in Gergiev’s Shostakovich cycle include Symphonies Nos 2 & 11 and Symphonies Nos 1 & 15, the latter of which was nominated for two Grammy Awards. The Mariinsky label will release its second recording with pianist Denis Matsuev during May 2011 featuring Shostakovich’s piano concertos. Gergiev’s recent releases on LSO Live have included Mahler’s Symphony No 5, an Outstanding Recording in International Record Review. “Valery Gergiev conducts his Mariinsky Orchestra – on its LSO-backed house label – in thoughtful accounts of astonishing detail. The playing – and recording quality – in this important Shostakovich cycle is hugely impressive.” Yorkshire Evening Post, 15th April 2011 “riveting, pugnacious, and genuinely taut performances...And how wonderful to hear a truly Russian chorus capture the blind utopian optimism of the finale...It is a thrill to sense the contrast of the Third's youthful joy against the pungent maturity of the Tenth. And Gergiev knows exactly how to touch every nerve.” The Scotsman, 3rd May 2011 ***** “He treats [the Third] like a film score, making the most of graphically illustrative passages...and inspiring the massed ranks of the Mariinsky Chorus to sing their hearts out in the stirring choral finale...there are some extremely impressive things to discover in Gergiev's interpretation [of the Tenth], particularly in the second half of the work...There's some wonderfully expressive woodwind playing, too” BBC Music Magazine, June 2011 ****/* “The Allegretto [of the Tenth] is taken quite swiftly and is the most successful movement, the puppet-like dance quite poker-faced, while the repeated 'Elmira' motif...is sensitively played by the horns...[in the Third] Gergiev favour[s] sprightly tempos, even if these exaggerate the sometimes trite nature of the musical material...The performance is capped by the Mariinsky Theatre Chorus, singing with fervour.” International Record Review “In the Third Symphony, the overriding priority is a sense of enthusiasm - one that has to be driven towards the manic, then shadowed by nightmarish visions, and finally colossally reasserted, one that has to be fuelled from start to finish by unshakeable self-belief. Gergiev and his Mariinsky players have all those qualities at their fingertips...If this is outstanding, the Tenth is even more so.” Gramophone Magazine, July 2011 “Gergiev and his orchestra charge through the Third Symphony's roistering torrent of ideas, so that the music seems to hold itself together by adrenalin alone: the result, like the work itself, is brash and brilliant...the one that matters is the Tenth Symphony: Gergiev's superb, tight-reined interpretation holds its own with the best.” Classic FM Magazine, July 2011 ***** | | | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
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| |  | Shostakovich: Symphonies Nos. 3 & 15
The penultimate release of MDG’s highly successful cycle of the symphonies of Shostakovich. In his Symphony No. 3 the twenty-three-year old composer paid homage to May First as an important symbol of the revolution; forty-two years later in his Symphony No.15 he seems to have wanted to recall the carefree years of his youth. As on the previous releases in this splendid series, Roman Kofman conducts the Beethoven Orchestra Bonn. | | | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
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| |  | Shostakovich - String Quartets Nos. 2 & 3
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| |  | Shostakovich: Symphonies Nos. 1 & 3
“This series… is developing into something really special. These RLPO Shostakovich recordings withstand comparisons with some of the greatest performances on disc.” Hugh Canning, The Sunday Times This is the fifth disc in Vasily Petrenko’s Shostakovich fantastic cycle, which is continuing to take critics by storm. Shostakovich’s First Symphony propelled the teenage composer to international prominence, its emotional range and innovative orchestration marking him as a daring and precocious talent on the scene. The Third Symphony, ‘The First of May’, originally intended as part of a symphonic cycle inspired by dates on the revolutionary calendar, has been described as ‘a reckless and at times chaotic accommodation between modernist intent and revolutionary fervour’. “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 | | | (also available to download from $6.00) | Usually despatched in 2 - 3 working days. (Available now to download.) |
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| |  | Shostakovich: Symphonies Nos. 1 & 3
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| |  | Shostakovich - String Quartets Nos. 3, 7 & 8
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“Slovák conducts energetic performances of both Nos. 1 and 3.” Fanfare | | | (also available to download from $6.00) | Usually despatched in 2 - 3 working days. (Available now to download.) |
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