# SS 28.05.16 - Shostakovich #15



## realdealblues

A continuation of the Saturday Symphonies Tradition:

Welcome to another weekend of symphonic listening! 
_*
*_For your listening pleasure this weekend:*

Dmitri Shostakovich (1906 - 1975)*

Symphony No. 15 in A major, Op. 141

1. Allegretto
2. Adagio - Largo - Adagio - Largo
3. Allegretto
4. Adagio - Allegretto - Adagio - Allegretto

---------------------

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


----------



## Pugg

Not my cup of tea, so I pass


----------



## realdealblues

This was the most requested Symphony that wasn't included on the original list of 150 Most Recommended Symphonies with 8 requests. I always enjoy hearing this one so I hope everyone will grab a recording and listen along this weekend as the Saturday Symphony continues on! I'll be listening to...

View attachment 85022


Rudolf Barshai/WDR Symphony Orchestra Cologne


----------



## D Smith

I always thought it was shame that this work never made it to the Top 150 list so I'm glad to see it on the continuation of Saturday Symphony. Sanderling is my preferred recording but this week I'll give Petrenko/Liverpool a try.


----------



## hpowders

For me this is one of the weakest Shostakovich symphonies. I've heard quite a few recordings of it-from his son and Ashkenazy, for example. None of them have convinced me that 15 is a great work.

Not my glass of vodka.


----------



## Mahlerian

I'll listen to the Barshai recording as well. Thank you for keeping this up, Realdealblues!


----------



## Mika

D Smith said:


> I always thought it was shame that this work never made it to the Top 150 list so I'm glad to see it on the continuation of Saturday Symphony. Sanderling is my preferred recording but this week I'll give Petrenko/Liverpool a try.


I take Petrenko also.


----------



## KenOC

Absolutely a great symphony! I'll listen to one of the few recordings I haven't heard yet. Probably either Wigglesworth or Caetani.


----------



## EdwardBast

I really like this symphony too. Barshai or Haitink for me, since those are the two I have.


----------



## Haydn man

D Smith said:


> I always thought it was shame that this work never made it to the Top 150 list so I'm glad to see it on the continuation of Saturday Symphony. Sanderling is my preferred recording but this week I'll give Petrenko/Liverpool a try.


I shall also try this version


----------



## Triplets

I love this piece and have many fine recordings of it. Favorite is probably Solti and the CSO because I was at one of the concerts that the recording was culled from


----------



## KenOC

D Smith said:


> I always thought it was shame that this work never made it to the Top 150 list so I'm glad to see it on the continuation of Saturday Symphony. Sanderling is my preferred recording but this week I'll give Petrenko/Liverpool a try.


Is Petrenko channeling Jack Benny?


----------



## techniquest

I'm so pleased that this symphony is finally here in the Saturday Symphonies series 
I shall listen to as many recordings as I can over the next few days out of those I own. In order to add variation to those already mentioned, my first picks will be these:


----------



## elgar's ghost

Mravinsky for me. After eschewing the 13th and 14th I'm glad the autocratic Leningradian got around to recording this. As with many of his Melodiya/Olympia recordings the sound is somewhat woolly (although those singularly Soviet rasping coughs from live performances always seem to manage to come through loud and clear) but this for me is an account which overcomes any sonic reservations, especially as it was recorded the year after Shostakovich's death which makes me wonder if Mravinsky was on something of a quest for making his peace properly with the dead composer after their falling out the decade before.


----------



## MagneticGhost

Staggered that this wasn't in the Top 150. At least that was rectified in the Post 1950 project.
I'll give the Petrenko a go on Spotify later on.


----------



## dieter

hpowders said:


> For me this is one of the weakest Shostakovich symphonies. I've heard quite a few recordings of it-from his son and Ashkenazy, for example. None of them have convinced me that 15 is a great work.
> 
> Not my glass of vodka.


You silly sausage. It's one of his GREATEST.


----------



## dieter

elgars ghost said:


> Mravinsky for me. After eschewing the 13th and 14th I'm glad the autocratic Leningradian got around to recording this. As with many of his Melodiya/Olympia recordings the sound is somewhat woolly (although those singularly Soviet rasping coughs from live performances always seem to manage to come through loud and clear) but this for me is an account which overcomes any sonic reservations, especially as it was recorded the year after Shostakovich's death which makes me wonder if Mravinsky was on something of a quest for making his peace properly with the dead composer after their falling out the decade before.


This is a horrid example of why Mravinsky is NOT a conductor's bootlace. It's a fast and furious run-through. Yevgeny has absolutely no idea what this music is about.
Check out his (totally equal) co-conductor's many accounts to understand what a very great work this is.


----------



## dieter

Mika said:


> I take Petrenko also.


Another abysmal Petrenko recording. It is only well reviewed in England. Why? Cos it's a Pommie orchestra.


----------



## dieter

EdwardBast said:


> I really like this symphony too. Barshai or Haitink for me, since those are the two I have.


Get Sanderling. 3 recordings, do yourself a very great favour.


----------



## TxllxT

Haitink, Barshai, Mravinsky (very bitter interpretation that is OK to my taste), but Rozhdestvensky is the master in bittersweet wheeler dealing: the party wants a mindless tune, the party gets a mindless tune. Recording is bright sharpish, very fitting indeed!


----------



## dieter

TxllxT said:


> Haitink, Barshai, Mravinsky (very bitter interpretation that is OK to my taste), but Rozhdestvensky is the master in bittersweet wheeler dealing: the party wants a mindless tune, the party gets a mindless tune. Recording is bright sharpish, very fitting indeed!


Nah, Sanderling transcends that. He understands this is about more than party politics. This is the bitter sweet acceptance that the reality is the bulldust that confronts all of us, whether it be Blair, Hitler, Bush, Stalin, Churchill, Obama, Netanyahu, Putin, Kennedy, Cameron, Thatcher, Howard, Hawke, Clinton and all the rest of the maggots who yield to the arms manufacturers who want to keep us in the state of perpetual war.


----------



## Alfacharger

Polyansky and the Russian State Symphony Orchestra.


----------



## Manxfeeder

I prefer Kondrashin for Shostakovich for some reason, so that's where I'm headed.


----------



## elgar's ghost

dieter said:


> This is a horrid example of why Mravinsky is NOT a conductor's bootlace. It's a fast and furious run-through. Yevgeny has absolutely no idea what this music is about.
> Check out his (totally equal) co-conductor's many accounts to understand what a very great work this is.


Much obliged, Dieter. Once again your perspicacity penetrates laser-like through the murkiness of my crass ignorance of all things aesthetic.

:cheers:


----------



## KenOC

dieter said:


> This is a horrid example of why Mravinsky is NOT a conductor's bootlace. It's a fast and furious run-through. Yevgeny has absolutely no idea what this music is about.


You might want to let Shostakovich know about this. He had the wretched taste to allow Mravinsky to conduct the premieres of six of his symphonies. Whatever _was _the man thinking? :lol:


----------



## dieter

KenOC said:


> You might want to let Shostakovich know about this. He had the wretched taste to allow Mravinsky to conduct the premieres of six of his symphonies. Whatever _was _the man thinking? :lol:


Good point. They did fall out in the end....


----------



## Vaneyes

*Shostakovich*: Symphony 15, w. Philadelphia/Ormandy (rec. 1972). Recording Engineer: Paul Goodman.


----------

