# 100 Favorites: # 84



## JACE (Jul 18, 2014)

*Shostakovich: Symphonies Nos. 6 & 10
Yevgeny Mravinsky, Leningrad Philharmonic Orchestra (BMG/Melodiya)*










If top-shelf sonics are paramount to you, don't get this CD. These are live recordings, made in the Soviet Union during the 1970s. The sound is far from ideal. But these performances are riveting: absolutely hair-raising and pedal-to-the-metal intense. They're also unmissable if you want to hear the conductor and orchestra who premiered most of Shostakovich's symphonies -- including these two works. If you _must_ hear the Tenth in digital format, consider Vladimir Ashkenazy's recording with the Royal PO. It's paired with the Chamber Symphony, Rudolf Barshai's orchestration of DSCH's Eighth String Quartet. Both performances are thrilling and the sonics are excellent -- even if they can't quite match the idiomatic intensity of Mravinsky and the Leningraders.


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