Shostakovich Symphonies 1 & 6

Record and Artist Details

Composer or Director: Dmitri Shostakovich

Label: Decca

Media Format: CD or Download

Media Runtime: 64

Mastering:

DDD

Catalogue Number: 425 609-2DH

Tracks:

Composition Artist Credit
Symphony No. 1 Dmitri Shostakovich, Composer
Dmitri Shostakovich, Composer
London Philharmonic Orchestra
Vladimir Ashkenazy, Conductor
Symphony No. 6 Dmitri Shostakovich, Composer
Dmitri Shostakovich, Composer
London Philharmonic Orchestra
Vladimir Ashkenazy, Conductor

Composer or Director: Dmitri Shostakovich

Label: Decca

Media Format: Cassette

Media Runtime: 0

Mastering:

DDD

Catalogue Number: 425 609-4DH

Tracks:

Composition Artist Credit
Symphony No. 1 Dmitri Shostakovich, Composer
Dmitri Shostakovich, Composer
London Philharmonic Orchestra
Vladimir Ashkenazy, Conductor
Symphony No. 6 Dmitri Shostakovich, Composer
Dmitri Shostakovich, Composer
London Philharmonic Orchestra
Vladimir Ashkenazy, Conductor
In a field as competitive as this (needlessly competitive, I'd say: does the world really need eight CD recordings of Shostakovich's First Symphony and nine of his Sixth?) relatively minor matters tend to loom large, and excellent performances disappoint because they are not super-excellent. The minor matter here is the string sound, perfectly fine in the First Symphony, with its predominant quietness and frequently chamber scoring, but disconcertingly thin in the Sixth which, although its instrumentation on paper is almost identical to that of the First, clearly needs a much more massive sound. This harms Ashkenazy's interpretation at times: in the concluding Largo of the first movement, for example, where his emotional restraint and his refusal to overstate the obvious Mahlerian kinships are both very affecting, but they are diminished by the light-weight and rather distanced string sound. I am not sure whether this is because the RPO's string force really is a bit understaffed, or because the recorded balance (excellent in the case of the earlier work) has been, so to speak, re-focused to accommodate the Sixth's much heavier deployment of woodwind and brass. I suspect the latter, but whatever the cause the effect in the Sixth Symphony is a bright lean-ness of sound which is something of an advantage in the two later movements, which Ashkenazy takes very fast, but a disappointment in the first, where the specific gravity of the music is reduced. A pity: it is a good performance, if not quite so pungently characterized as Jarvi's on Chandos or as grand as Haitink's on Decca.
The First Symphony sounds a good deal better, and as a performance it can withstand high comparisons. It is a pity that Ashkenazy (like Jarvi but unlike Haitink) takes the scherzo's contrasting idea a bit too fast for its mysterious remoteness to be fully distilled. Conversely the finale's meno mosso is too slow for its surely underlying feverishness to be apparent, but then both Jarvi and Haitink do much the same. For this coupling Jarvi strikes me as clearly preferable, as he would if the Sixth Symphony were your primary concern (Haitink's very fine Sixth is awkwardly and not very generously coupled on a two-CD set with the Eleventh Symphony and the light-weight Overture on Russian and Kirghiz Themes). Haitink's First is coupled with an impressive account of the Ninth Symphony. One final grouch about Decca's recording for Ashkenazy: surely it is possible to avoid picking up (late in the First Symphony's finale) the ugly sound of timpani being damped? And if not, why is the low harp note in the Largo of the Sixth (Shostakovich marked it ff) almost inaudible?'

Discover the world's largest classical music catalogue with Presto Music. 

Stream on Presto Music | Buy from Presto Music

Gramophone Print

  • Print Edition

From £6.67 / month

Subscribe

Gramophone Digital Club

  • Digital Edition
  • Digital Archive
  • Reviews Database
  • Full website access

From £8.75 / month

Subscribe

                              

If you are a library, university or other organisation that would be interested in an institutional subscription to Gramophone please click here for further information.