# Best recording of Shostakovich's 4th symphony



## jdec (Mar 23, 2013)

Any recommendations for the best 4th?


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## Orfeo (Nov 14, 2013)

Try:


Neemi Jarvi and the Royal Scottish National Orchestra (Chandos): Great sound, great playing, and superb attack.
Kyrill Kondrashin and the Moscow Philharmonic (Melodiya): Sound is reasonable (harsh at tuttis), but likewise a great playing.
Myung-whun Chung and the Philadelphia Orchestra (DG): Similar qualities as Jarvi's.


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## D Smith (Sep 13, 2014)

Second the Kondrashin.


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## Jeffrey Smith (Jan 2, 2016)

D Smith said:


> Second the Kondrashin.


The whole Kondrashin set is good, not only the Fourth.

Others I like
Gergiev with the Kirov and Rotterdam Philharmonics on what used to be Philips. Not to be confused with his newer recording with the Mariinsky (as the Kirov is now called) which I have not heard.
Rattle's recording is very good, for a change (I am not a Rattle fan)
Barshai
A TC member suggested Daniel Raiskin's recording, which is now en route to me.


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

None 

I don't like that music at all


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## GioCar (Oct 30, 2013)

Pugg said:


> None
> 
> I don't like that music at all


Thank you for your interesting post

Re. the OP question, the Barshai/WDR Orchestra is my favourite among those I have (the Haitink/LPO and the Oleg Caetani with my home orchestra - which is not bad at all, trust me)

I don't know if the Barshai is available separately or in the cycle of all symphonies only.










Anyway I recommend the whole thing as well.


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## TxllxT (Mar 2, 2011)




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## Janspe (Nov 10, 2012)

Vasily Petrenko and the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra - a stunning performance! Warmly recommended.


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

GioCar said:


> Thank you for your interesting post


Honesty is the best thing


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## vampireslugger (Aug 5, 2015)

[Oh fool am I... I misread the title as Tchaikovsky's 4th]

I second the Petrenko/LPO recording -- in fact the whole cycle is one of the best.


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## Fugue Meister (Jul 5, 2014)

I second the Chung recording but I also have a Bernard Haitink recording that I enjoy.


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## DiesIraeCX (Jul 21, 2014)

[Deleted Post]

I realized I don't actually care enough to respond to the poster in question.


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## Triplets (Sep 4, 2014)

Haitink with either Chicago or the LPO or Ormandy with Philly


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## Martyn Harper (Jan 27, 2016)

I would definitely go with Haitink on this one.


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## Triplets (Sep 4, 2014)

I heard the Tink perform this with the CSO a few years back, and I guess the recording issued was taken from those Concerts.
It was very impressive to watch him guide the orchestra through the terracing in sound levels that the Composer calls for.
His earlier recording is bursting with the Composer's creative spirit and the later one, while not exactly tame, seems to emphasize the formal elements and perhaps make it sound like something Mahler might have turned out if he had eaten some borscht and then been threatened by Stalin. Or am I reading to much into this?


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## dsphipps100 (Jan 10, 2016)

vampireslugger said:


> I second the Petrenko/LPO recording -- in fact the whole cycle is one of the best.


I will "third" the Petrenko recording. I also have the Previn/Chicago, Haitink/London Phil, Kitajenko/Cologne, Slatkin/St. Louis, Chung/Philadelphia, and Ashkenazy/NHK recordings, and for various reasons, Petrenko is better than any of them, although they're all good recordings, to be sure.

In the case of the somewhat popular Chung/Philadelphia recording, Chung simply takes it too fast. I realize that a number of listeners (including myself in the past) would defend his tempo choice as effective and exciting, but when I heard the Petrenko recording, I realized how much material Chung's faster speed is obscuring. There's a _whole_ lotta stuff going on the 4th Sym, and you'll hear more of it on Pretrenko's recording than any of the others I've listed here.


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

dsphipps100 said:


> ...but when I heard the Petrenko recording, I realized how much material Chung's faster speed is obscuring. There's a _whole_ lotta stuff going on the 4th Sym, and you'll hear more of it on Pretrenko's recording than any of the others I've listed here.


Overall, the Petrenko cycle has the best and most transparent sonics of any I've heard, a real plus. His interpretations are sometimes a bit unusual, but they always work. If I could keep only one set of DSCH symphonies, it would be Petrenko's.


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## Chromatose (Jan 18, 2016)

I've never heard a Petrenko recording of the 4th I'll have to check it out.


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

This thread is right up my alley.

The greatest performance I have ever heard is conducted by Daniel Raiskin. Puts Ormandy, Chung and Slatkin to shame.

A devastating performance!


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## techniquest (Aug 3, 2012)

I'm just listening to the Haitink / LPO recording from the complete symphonies set on London, and it is a pretty good recording from an otherwise overrated set (imvho) but it does lack that certain Russian-ness about it which recordings by Kondrashin and Rozhdestvensky definitely have, especially during the central section of the 1st movement in which I think Haitink misfires rather.
The recent Naxos recording with Petrenko and the Royal Liverpool Phil is certainly an excellent offering especially at budget price, and I think it's greatest fascination is it's 21st century interpretation of the work. Or, as another budget CD, get the Barshai - in fact you could get both the Petrenko and Barshai recordings of the 4th and still have plenty of change from a £20 note.
Another interesting recording is that by Oleg Caetani and the Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano Giuseppe Verdi; a live recording on SACD with great sound and surprisingly fierce playing.
Incidently, there has been at least one other thread about recordings of the 4th, and I'm pretty sure it was a 'Saturday Symphony' at some point last year, so it might be worth doing a search


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## Mal (Jan 1, 2016)

Careful with Haitink! I don't like the version with Haitink from the Decca box set with LPO, though I like others in that set. The third ear reviewer said the 4th was recorded early in Haitink's exploration of these symphonies, and he hadn't penetrated the mysteries at that point. Of course, it may be that me and third ear just don't understand Haitink. But third ear, at least, has listened to many versions.


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## Eva Yojimbo (Jan 30, 2016)

If you have a system with multi-channel capacity, give the Bychkov SACD a try. Great sound. Bychkov's is a fairly terse and tense reading. Less color, but more drama than, say, Haitink.


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## ptr (Jan 22, 2013)

Despite its vintage East German sound, I much prefer Kirill Kondrashing with the Staatskapelle Dresden (Profil)! Kondrashin brings that extra zest to Shostakovich symphonies! 

/ptr


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## Brahmsian Colors (Sep 16, 2016)

I agree with those who chose Jarvi and Kondrashin.


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## Vaneyes (May 11, 2010)

Recorded 1985.


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## JACE (Jul 18, 2014)

Kondrashin is my first choice for DSCH's Fourth. 

Then Rozhdestvensky, Barshai, and Rattle.


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