Search - Dmitry Shostakovich, Oleg Caetani, Milan Giuseppe Verdi Orchestra :: Shostakovich: Symphony No. 4 [Hybrid SACD]

A virile concert performance in the Shostakovich tradition w

Larry VanDeSande | Mason, Michigan United States | 03/21/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I read several online reviews of Oleg Caetani's Shostakovich Symphony No. 4 that criticized it for the thin-sound orchestra, The Giuseppe Verdi Symphony Orchestra of Milan, with which Caetani recorded this music in 2004. I decided to test this theory by playing Caetani's performance head-to-head with my heretofore favorite -- by Eugene Ormandy and the Philadelphia Orchestra from 1963. If not the greatest performmance of this music, the Ormandy is up there with the best inlcuding the Previn-Chicago Symphony recording most critics include in their short lists of favorites.



I played the Ormandy-PO recording on my standard CD player and contrasted it to the Caetani-Milan concert by playing that on my super audio player. I found evidence for the claim right away. The Philadelphia recording begins with greater immediacy, more in your face sound, and better definition. There's little question the Milan symphony is no match for the great 1963 Philadelphians, who were, some say, the world's greatest classical band at the time. Even those that doubt it would be hard-pressed to find a half-dozen orchestras that sounded as good.



One thing that characterized the Philadelphia recording was a substantially higher recording level. Comparing the two readings, it was like being on stage with the Philadelphia Orchestra, maybe in the middle of the brass and woodwinds, and being seated in the 20th row in Milan. This changed the context of the recordings for me. The Philadelphia Orchestra, while magnificent, was a marvel of technical precision. In the first timpani outbreak, it was clear it was recorded in typical 1960s fashion -- with many microphones, then mixed and recorded for depth of sound, spatial effect and definition. The Milan recording, in contrast, is exceedingly natural: no spotlighting, no emphasis on any one or group of instruments, nothing like that whatsoever. It's what you might hear in the concert hall.



The analysis of the two reflected the recording standards in place at the time each was made. The Philadelphia recording mirrored recording artistry circa 1963 and the Milan recording did so from a 21st century, period-inspired perspective. One was very dramatic with a lot of spotlighting and instrumental augmentation, and the other lived and died on what was essentially your perspective from the 20th row of the hall.



Artistically, there is little difference between the two. The timings are within a minute of so of each other for each movement to wit:



Caetani

1st movement 26:35

2nd movement 8:59

3rd movement 25:47



Ormandy

1st movement 25:40

2nd movement 9:08

3rd movement 26:07



While timing comparisons do not always tell a complete story, they do in this case. While Ormandy is all forward energy in the beginning, Caetani takes a bit more time interpreting phrases in development sections. The langorous woodwinds soloes that show up between 9-11 minutes of the first movement are a bit more telling in Caetani's concert. Ormandy's forces play out these differences more in the other two movements, but there's not a lot of difference, honestly. Both tastefully underplay the bombatic first movement sections.



These are dynamic performances of this sometimes misunderstood score, whose boisterous first movement sections are musical examples of the KGB coming to take you away, according to Ian McDonald's 1991 book on Shostakovich. Considering the time and place of this symphony -- written by the 20-year-old Shostakovich before he was unfailingly embittered by Stlain -- it's hard to say how much of the composer's latent pessimism and mockery is in the score. Shostakovich admired the symphonies of Mahler and this one is as close as he came to writing a Mahlerian symphony.



Two things differentiate the recordings: the oustanding and natural super audio sound Caetani receives, giving the bottom of the orchestra unusually compelling definition, and the inclusion in Caetani's package of a fragment movement from the symphony Shostakovich wrote in two piano form authorized by the DSCH Publishers. This "Fragment of the unpublished movement" begins adagio and moves to allegro no troppo; it is of 5:37 duration and builds to a noisy third subject, then just ends. Caetani's notes postulate this would have been a different first or third movement; I believe it could just as easily have been the beginnings of a third movement, probably a scherzo. This is the second recording this fragment has received, the first coming from Rostropovich and the London Symphony Orchestra in 1998.



The sound and this little extra provide something Ormandy doesn't offer, making this package more desirable. Caetani is a near equal to the great and historic Ormandy recording, meaning his can stand with any recording ever made of this oblique score. Caetani shows both sympathy to and understanding of Shostakovich's motives, both in terms of absolute music and any hidden agenda that may be available under the surface. This is first rate Shostakovich is voluptuous super audio sound with some of the best timpani I've heard recorded. So one need fear acquiring this on artistic, musical or technological grounds."