We can argue till the combined harvesters come home about the emotional content of Shostakovich's symphonies; but there is no doubt in my mind that the emotions are more often mixed than clearly defined. That is what I miss in this new recording. The very opening is energetic and positive, with a nice sense of perspective in the sound and some very musical shaping from a confident, well-rehearsed orchestra. But without a touch of fierceness, foreboding, sarcasm, threat or something of the sort, it leaves the listener standing outside the drama. Similarly, the 'invasion' music, as it used to be called, is here more impressive than appalling, the scherzo needs a more tense, exploratory quality, the slow movement more strain, the finale more sense of proximity to the abyss.
The cushioned acoustic of Dallas's Meyerson Symphony Center may be a contributory factor— the sound is warm and full but never hooks into you, and the woodwind seem to be at an unnecessary disadvantage.
As I wrote in April, my preferred recordings of the Leningrad are no longer available. But both Bernstein on DG (live, on two full-price discs) and Rozhdestvensky on Olympia (less well recorded but mid-price on a single disc) convey the essential sense of who the music is for—in this case not for the 100 musicians, nor yet for the thousands at a concert or buying CDs, but for the millions who never lived to hear it.'