# SS 02.01.16 - Shostakovich #9



## realdealblues (Mar 3, 2010)

A continuation of the Saturday Symphonies Tradition:

Welcome to another weekend of symphonic listening! 
_*
Once again I'm posting this one a little early this week due to the New Year Holiday. Hope everyone has a great New Year and enjoys the first Saturday Symphony of 2016!*_

For your listening pleasure this weekend:*

Dmitri Shostakovich (1906 - 1975)*

Symphony No. 9 in E-flat major, Op. 70 

1. Allegro
2. Moderato
3. Presto
4. Largo
5. Allegretto - Allegro

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Post what recording you are going to listen to giving details of Orchestra / Conductor / Chorus / Soloists etc - Enjoy!


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## realdealblues (Mar 3, 2010)

Another year is upon us. I hope everyone will continue to participate in the Saturday Symphony and maybe some new listeners will join in. Remember you don't have have to listen on Saturday. You can listen anytime before the next Saturday Symphony is posted so feel free to join in the fun.

We're starting off the New Year with Shostakovich's 9th. I always enjoy rehearing this one so I'm looking forward to giving it a spin. I will be listening to:

View attachment 79653


Leonard Bernstein/New York Philharmonic


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## Mahlerian (Nov 27, 2012)

I'll be listening to Barshai's with the WDR Symphony Orchestra.


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## techniquest (Aug 3, 2012)

I like this symphony.
I should probably have the time to listen to two or three versions. My initial inclination is to go with one very much admired (Kondranshin) and one less so (Kitajenko). Or maybe I've simply chosen conductors whose names begin with 'K'.


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## Triplets (Sep 4, 2014)

techniquest said:


> I like this symphony.
> I should probably have the time to listen to two or three versions. My initial inclination is to go with one very much admired (Kondranshin) and one less so (Kitajenko). Or maybe I've simply chosen conductors whose names begin with 'K'.
> 
> View attachment 79655
> View attachment 79656


This is one of my favorite Shostakovich Symphonies and I have many recordings of it. I have the Kitaenko set and the 9th is a real highlight. I also greatly admire Bernstein and the Vienna PO, but I am out of town so it will be the Barshai, from the complete cycle which is loaded on my phone.


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## TxllxT (Mar 2, 2011)

Especially when brash biting humour is needed, Rozhdestvensky is at his best. The bright close-up recording fits very well with the interpretation.


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## ptr (Jan 22, 2013)

Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal u. Charles Dutoit (Decca)

Dutoit's gallic esprit works very well in this symphony!

/ptr


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## Jeff W (Jan 20, 2014)

Vladimir Ashkenazy leading the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra for me. Love this symphony.


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## Art Rock (Nov 28, 2009)

Barshai from the box, and also Rozhdestvensky on Olympia (a CD I bought in the late 80s).


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

Petrenko does a very good job with the 9th. "The Russian composer should not have expressed his feelings about the defeat of Nazism in such a childish manner" (New York World-Telegram, 27 July 1946).


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## MrTortoise (Dec 25, 2008)

This will be another new Symphony for me. Decisions, decisions, I'll have to see what Spotify has to offer.


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## D Smith (Sep 13, 2014)

I have a recording of this by Jarvi which I have never cared for. I'll see if Barshai can do any better. Happy New Year to all the TC Saturday Symphoniacs!


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## Manxfeeder (Oct 19, 2010)

I like my Shostakovich dished up by Kondrashin, so it's his 9th for me.


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## AClockworkOrange (May 24, 2012)

I have missed a few of these Saturday Symphonies through other commitments.

I'll jump into this one with recordings from Barshai and Bernstein.


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## Haydn man (Jan 25, 2014)

I shall be letting Petrenko and RLP guide me through this one


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## elgar's ghost (Aug 8, 2010)

One of those Shosty works where the more I attempted to imagine what his intentions might have been the more doggedly enigmatic it remained. Perhaps I imagined - or expected - too much after the larger-scale 7th and 8th. It has always struck me as being something of a curiosity in his symphonic output but perhaps offers a necessary (if not necessarily logical) contrast in light and shade, like his 6th.


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## Triplets (Sep 4, 2014)

elgars ghost said:


> One of those Shosty works where the more I attempted to imagine what his intentions might have been the more doggedly enigmatic it remained. Perhaps I imagined - or expected - too much after the larger-scale 7th and 8th. It has always struck me as being something of a curiosity in his symphonic output but perhaps offers a necessary (if not necessarily logical) contrast in light and shade, like his 6th.


The 6th and the 9th do have a lot in common.


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## MrTortoise (Dec 25, 2008)

Kondrashin and Moscow Philharmonic via Spotify. If times allow try Bernstein and the NY Phil.


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## Mika (Jul 24, 2009)

Let's try double headliner this time : Will listen Barshai & Petrenko


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## Fat Bob (Sep 25, 2015)

I'm sorry to say I don't know Shostakovich's symphonies as well as I should - the only version of this I have is the Naxos disc with Petrenko and the Liverpool orchestra, a disc I bought primarily for the 5th and I've never really got to grips with the 9th. So this is a good incentive.


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## techniquest (Aug 3, 2012)

Okay, I listened to them both (see above).
The Kitajenko is very good - a highlight from the set, I'd say, the recording is beautiful and clear and the pacing is very good - but I still prefer the Kondrashin. The Melodiya recording is 50 years old and it has a very oddly tuned timp which shows at the ends of the first and last movements, but it's the energy that really shines through, and no one has yet managed to beat Kondrashin's build up at the start of the 5th movement after the long bassoon solo at the end of the 4th; it's savage and makes the theme at it's resolution sound not silly or trite, but menacingly sadistic. 
I might give the Petrenko / Naxos recording a spin now...


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## techniquest (Aug 3, 2012)

Petrenko and the Royal Liverpool PO's 2008 recording on Naxos is an excellent complement to their staggeringly brilliant 5th symphony on the same disc.
The 2nd movement (moderato) is taken at a slow pace which makes the brisk 3rd movement (presto) seem even faster and the brass chorales which herald the bassoon solos in the 4th movement have a real sense of foreboding and, to me, this brief movement echoes the feel of the last part of the 1st movement of the 8th, but with a premonition of the DSCH motif which was to be so prominent in the 10th symphony. Although this slow movement is done really well, the start of the 5th treads far too lightly. What happens is that the build-up to the main theme loses all sense of menace until the tune itself presents as a jolly little party rather than anything else. It's all turned a bit 'Prokofiev's Classical Symphony' as the movement dances along happily (and quickly) to it's conclusion. This is worlds apart from the Kondrashin - isn't it amazing how different interpretations of the same piece of music can be?


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## Classical Music Fan (Nov 21, 2015)

I listened to the Petrenko one as well.


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## GKC (Jun 2, 2011)

and


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## Vaneyes (May 11, 2010)

Shostakovich: Symphony 9, w. LPO/Hatink. Recorded 1980 at Kingsway Hall, London. Recording Engineer: Simon Eadon.


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## Bayreuth (Jan 20, 2015)

This will be the second time I listen to this symphony. I recall liking it a lot the first time, about six months ago. I'll go with Ashkenazy and the Royal Philarmonic


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## bz3 (Oct 15, 2015)

I am not overly familiar with this but enjoyed it last night - short and light-ish but still adventurous. I listened to Haitink/LPO. Might listen to it again this week.


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## geralmar (Feb 15, 2013)

I'm still partial to Sargent/LSO, ca. 1960. Critics have never been as receptive, however.


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## elgar's ghost (Aug 8, 2010)

^
^

I had no idea 'Flash Harry' had recorded it - I thought a symphony by Shostakovich might have been somewhat out of his comfort zone, though that isn't a dig at him.


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