Re: Shostakovich's 8th symphony?


jrsnfld@xxxxxxx wrote:
Michael Schaffer wrote:
jrsnfld@xxxxxxx wrote:
alanwatkinsuk@xxxxxxx wrote:
Charles wrote:
Any recommendations for recordings of Shostakovich's 8th symphony?
Thank you.

Charles

Ploughing (plowing?) a very lonely furrow live and on record I would go
for Ladislav Slovak but there again the percussion occasionally plough
(plow) lonely furrows in all 15.

Cannot say about any recording he may have made but based on (two)
personal live experiences I don't think the composers son has the
slightest idea about it.

Kind regards,
Alan M. Watkins

Isn't Maxim's recording on Collins? I'm not sure I've heard it.

No one mentioned Jansons, Litton, and Levi, all three quite good in
their separate ways.

I have Jansons. The performance is well prepared and musically
interesting, but the PSO simply doesn't have enough sound and impact
for this music.

What do you think is the cause of that? Are they too small an
orchestra? Does their recording venue have anything to do with it? The
engineers of the recordings there?

Dunno. They play very well, but they just don't have a very impactful
sound. I heard them in Berlin playing Mahler 5 with Jansons which was a
good concert. They have a precise ensemble and pleasant sound which is
fairly lucid and transparent, kind of like the SFS, but less colorful.
But rather bass light. I enjoyed that concert and, to a degree, the
Sibelius symphonies they recorded with Maazel (although they are not
exactly the greatest Sibelius recordings out there, hard to believe
this is the same conductor who did those phenomenal recordings 25 years
earlier. Well, in a way, he wasn't anymore).
The Oslo Philharmonic probably never sounded quite as cultivated and
polished, but they have a somewhat grainy, a little "woodcut" like
sound quality which can also have its attraction.
Anway, the PSO/Jansons Shostakovich 8 is musically quite good, but also
fairly timid and has neither the sonical nor emotional impact of some
other versions. A good, well prepared rendering of the score, but
actually somewhat disappointing for a Jansons performance. I wish he
had done more than just the 7th with the Leningrad/StPetersburg
Philharmonia.

BTW, when I recently listened to Karajan's EMI Sibelius 4 (the later
one with the BP), I had to think of the recent discussion about oboe
styles since the principal oboe on that recording does indeed sound a
little beepy. But I am pretty sure that wasn't Koch. I don't know who
was the other principal until the late 70s - the BP always have two
equal principals for each wind section -, but it certainly doesn't
sound like Schellenberger at all who only joined the orchestra in 1980
or so anyway. But I do remember hearing that he played as a regular
guest principal for a while during the late 70s, so that may indicate
that the other principal, whoever he was, had retired or was about to
retire by that time. It is not at all untypical for them to take
several years and sometimes "waste" several candidates before finally
filling key positions in the orchestra.
That also reminds me that I still haven't listened to the PSO/Maazel
"Swan of Tuonela" that you mentioned. Let me put that on right now.
I used to think the same of Oslo...they didn't have enough sound to
carry the Berlioz I heard them perform once, under Jansons. But I
didn't have that problem with Pittsburgh when I heard them under
Maazel, in the same hall.

--Jeff

--Jeff

.

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