A lot of Shostakovich, most of it underplayed
Santa Fe Listener | Santa Fe, NM USA | 07/17/2007
(3 out of 5 stars)
"My intention in posting this review isn't to detail the many performances on these 12 discs, which extend far beyond Shostakovich's fifteen symphonies. I thought readers deserved to know what was actually included since Amazon has been derelict in theeir duty. As to Ashkenazy's interpreatations, he is clearly a devotee of Shostakovich's music, but his approach is almost always foursquare and uninspired. His musical temperament doesn't allow him to confront the bitterness and savage irony in this music, nor does he reach deep for tragic meaning, either. Caution is a serious flaw in a Shostakovich conductor. Everything is nicely balanced, however, and on the whole gorgeously recorded.
The three orchestras here are the NHK from Tokyo, the Royal Phil. from London, and the St. Petersburg Phil, which naturally sounds the most idiomatic. But nothing sounds less than polished -- Ashkenazy is good at burnished surfaces. I wish I could pick out a single performance that rises to the heights of Kondrashin, Bernstein, Gergiev, Mravinsky, or even Haitink, but Ashkenazy simply isn't in their league.
In any event, here's what the whole set contains:
TRACKS: Symphony No.1 in F minor op.10. Symphony No.6 in B minor op.54. Festival Overture op.96. October op.131. Symphony No.2 in B op.14 'To October'. The Song of the Forests op.81. Symphony No.12 in D minor op.112 'The Year 1917'. Symphony No.3 in E flat op.20 'The First of May'. Symphony No.4 in C minor op.43. Symphony No.5 in D minor op.47. 5 Fragments op.42. Symphony No.7 in C op.60 'Leningrad'. Funeral and Triumphal Prelude op.130. Symphony No.8 in C minor op.65. Novorosiisk Chimes. Chamber Symphony in C minor op.110a (arr. Barshai). Symphony No.10 in E minor op.93. Symphony No.11 in G minor op.103 'The Year 1905'. Symphony No.13 in B flat minor op.113 'Babi Yar'. Symphony No.14 op.135. Symphony No.9 in E flat op.70. Symphony No.15 in A op.141.
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Solid Shostakovich
Russell Etzenhouser | 10/20/2007
(5 out of 5 stars)
"Ashkenazy has been at this cycle longer than most. It has been difficult to follow in the US due to quick deletions from London/Decca. The result is a very sane and solid approach to one of the great symphonists of the 20th Century. Many may find those adjectives to be out of place with the man at the center of one of the great controversial biographies/memoirs/fictions of classical musicians, but however you weigh in on the man and his motives, Ashkenazy presents him as a composer of real substance. The tone was clearly set with the first issue of the cycle, Symphony No. 5 and continues with the new releases of the set, 4, 13 and 14. While it may be fashionable to criticize some of the symphonies as less than worthy, they are all given strong advocacy by one of the truly great conductors before the public today. For me high points of the cycle are 5, 7, 11 and 15 with many enjoyable fillers along the way."
