Search - Yevgeny Yevtushenko, Dmitry Shostakovich, Kurt Masur :: Dmitri Shostakovich: Symphony No. 13 "Babi Yar"

A musical monument

Alejandra Vernon | Long Beach, California | 08/22/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Beginning and ending with recitations by Yevgeny Yevtushenko, this CD is a powerful, emotional experience. Shostakovich's Symphony # 13, written after Stalin's death, with hopes of a better future and mourning the past, is a musical monument to the horrific mass execution at Babi Yar, and an expression against the anti-Semitism that continued in the U.S.S.R.
After much controversy over his poem, "Babi Yar", Yevtushenko was forced to change some central lines in it in order for the composition to be performed. All but ignored in its 1962 Moscow premiere, this magnificent symphony has now earned it's rightful place as one of Shostakovich's best pieces.The five movements incorporate four additional Yevtushenko poems:
First movement: "Babi Yar", is a massive, adagio, with blazing trumpets and heavy drum beats. Second movement: "Humor", is a sprightly and playfull allegretto. Third movement: "In the Store", a beautiful, sad adagio, with a marvelous ending full of tension that segues into the fouth movement, "Fears", which is a largo of intense drama. The final allegretto, "Career", has wonderful, melodic passages, and the end is peaceful, with the last notes a barely audible pianissimo.
Track # 7 is Yevtushenko reciting "The Loss"; it was the first public hearing of this poem, and he reads it in English.Bass Sergei Leiferkus, along with the Men of the New York Choral Artists, are outstanding, and Kurt Masur leads the New York Philharmonic in a magnificent performance.
Recorded live at Avery Fisher Hall in 1993, the sound is excellent, and total time 67:15. The insert booklet has extensive liner notes, and complete text of the poems in English, transliterated Russian, German and French."

Masur a German, NYPO a Mahler orchestra, so what?

127 | 08/19/1999

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Utterly symphonic in structure, Masur is objective, and the NYPO is very polished, gliding through the scherzo, with blazing trumpets led by Philip Smith. Indeed, the woodwinds sound particularily keen playing those wonderfully rhapsodic semetic quotations. My one gripe with the Kondrashin (the premiere performance on the Russian Disc label) is that the segway into the finale is way too fast, dissolving away carthartic effects. This problem is resolved with the Germainc Masur, and the finale is quite satistfying indeed. With Yevtushenko reciting, a literary bonus is added."

A fantastic recording, a moving piece

W. Jones | Washington DC | 03/18/2001

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This recording is the first choice on my "desert island" list. The orchestra simply plays magnificantly. Only the NYP has the rich sound to express the gravity of the first movement. The flute playing at the start of the last movement is unearthly, offering such a relief to the heaviness of the previous four; I'll listen to the first 4 movements just to get to this one and be lifted beyond every day human experience."