# SS 14.12.13 - Shostakovich #10



## realdealblues (Mar 3, 2010)

A continuation of the Saturday Symphonies Tradition:

*Dmitri Shostakovich (1906 - 1975)*

Symphony #10 in E Minor, Op. 93 

1. Moderato
2. Allegro
3. Allegretto
4. Andante - 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)

This Saturday I'll listen to:

View attachment 30321


Rudolf Barshai & The WDR Symphony Orchestra


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## contra7 (Oct 26, 2010)

Scottish National Orchestra
Conductor: Neeme Järvi


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## Vasks (Dec 9, 2013)

The only one I'll ever need


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## DaDirkNL (Aug 26, 2013)

I'll listen to Rostropovich and the National Symphony Orchestra.


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## Mahlerian (Nov 27, 2012)

Petrenko/Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, I suppose.


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## techniquest (Aug 3, 2012)

I'll listen to the Kitajenko recording from his complete symphonies box.


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## Mika (Jul 24, 2009)

I have Petrenko and Barshai versions. Need to check something from youtube this time. Maybe Gergiev in BBC Proms 2013


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## GioCar (Oct 30, 2013)

Not the best cd of the cycle, but anyway it deserves a listening









Oleg Caetani, Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano Giuseppe Verdi


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## senza sordino (Oct 20, 2013)

Vasks said:


> The only one I'll ever need
> 
> View attachment 30327


I bought this three weeks ago to replace my Naxos recording which stopped working. It's great, and possibly my favorite of his symphonies.


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## maestro267 (Jul 25, 2009)

Not a well-known recording, but it's the only one I've got, so:

Czecho-Slovak RSO/Ladislav Slovak


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

A great performance from a conductor you may never have heard of: Frank Shipway.


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## ptr (Jan 22, 2013)

I've always had a soft spot for the sonorities of the Royal Concertgebouw Orkest, hence my choice for today's conquest is Claus-Peter Flor's 1991 RCA cut of this Symphony!









Listening right now! 

/ptr


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## techniquest (Aug 3, 2012)

I listened accordingly to the Kitajenko Sh10 as suggested above; but I'm not going do a long, involved movement-by-movement review of the recording. Suffice to say it's excellent.
However, there are a couple of oddities I heard in the 1st movement for which I'd be grateful of confirmation either of what I heard, or that I'm having a rather weird senior moment: in the central section, I hear fluttertongue trumpet at 14:09, and I hear an extra note on strings at 15:36 just after the third tam-tam hit.


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## maestro267 (Jul 25, 2009)

I must admit I find the 1st movement of this work tends to drag a bit, especially at the end. There's this massive climax, then 10 minutes where the music just meanders along, probably mezzo-piano or whatever, not really going anywhere. But the rest of the symphony more than makes up for it. The 2nd movement is short, but lethal in its unremitting violence. The 3rd movement has a mystery about it, especially at the end with that eerie final chord and the piccolo stating the DSCH motif. And the finale's conclusion is so thrilling.


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## ptr (Jan 22, 2013)

Listening to another 10 that I have not listened to for quite a while (like 20 years), Eugene Ormandy with the Philadelphians on CBS/SONY, very stringent!









/ptr


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## techniquest (Aug 3, 2012)

^^ That recording was my very first Sh10, on vinyl. Still have it  (I still have the 4th on vinyl too.)


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## Cheyenne (Aug 6, 2012)

I listened to Rozhdestvensky with the USSR Ministry of Culture Orchestra: a fine performance! It is the first movement I truly love. I remember the first time I heard that great fortissimo -- a true shock to the system. And those lovely woodwinds, how excellently are they used! Oh, the flute at the end! -- the voice of the angel lamenting the darkness of the desolate abyss! Wonderful, wonderful.


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## realdealblues (Mar 3, 2010)

Good turn out this weekend. Thanks to everyone for participating. 

I listened to the Barshai recording this weekend.

Kind of like last week with Prokofiev, I'm not a raving Shostakovich fan per say, but I've heard and enjoyed a good deal of his symphonies having listened through all his symphonies at least twice. The last time I did so was a few years since ago, so it was kind of like listening to it for the first time. I'm no expert on Shostakovich and I'm hoping one day I can take the time to be come more familiar with his works. Overall though, I enjoyed listening to this work and I enjoyed the Barshai recording just fine.


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## Vaneyes (May 11, 2010)

I was late for the dance. This one (rec. 1981)...


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## EdwardBast (Nov 25, 2013)

Cheyenne said:


> I listened to Rozhdestvensky with the USSR Ministry of Culture Orchestra: a fine performance! It is the first movement I truly love. I remember the first time I heard that great fortissimo -- a true shock to the system. And those lovely woodwinds, how excellently are they used! Oh, the flute at the end! -- the voice of the angel lamenting the darkness of the desolate abyss! Wonderful, wonderful.


Yes, the first movement is magnificent. I presume you mean the piccolo(s) at the end? I like the lamenting angel image. That passage, and indeed the whole coda, is a disembodied meditation on the clarinet theme (first heard in m. 69, reh 5 in the Kalmus reprint score) over the motto theme in the bass. I think it is significant that this theme was flayed alive in the climax of the movement and then absent from the recapitulation (or dovetailed with the end of the development depending on how one looks at it). So when it is heard in that disembodied form in the coda, it is like a memory of the theme from beyond the grave. In memory of the dead perhaps?


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## Zarathustra (Dec 21, 2013)

After listening to a couple of symphonies for the first time I decided to take a "rest" listening to an already known work. The 10th is beautiful but it's not one of the Shostakovich's symphonies I listen to the most. Listening to Mravinsky's version I wondered why. It really is magnificent. All of it.


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## billeames (Jan 17, 2014)

I love many recordings of this.

Rozhdestvensky on BMG/Melodiya. Sound is no-noise which is not as good as modern recordings. 
Kondrashin Melodiya Sound not as good as modern recordings. 
Karajan both DG ones! 
Rostropovich Warner Classics
Haitink a little less but still good LPO.

I have not heard Jarvi (Neemi). I did not like Paavo's I believe on Telarc.


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## nightscape (Jun 22, 2013)

Jansons/Philadelphia. Great recording.


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## Fugue Meister (Jul 5, 2014)

For me the two best interpreters of Shostakovich's works are in order:

1- Bernard Haitink
2- Mstislav Rostropovich
3- Gennady Rozhdestvensky
4- Valery Gergiev

If you haven't heard the Haitink complete Shostakovich symphony cycle, do yourself a favor and find a way to.


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## techniquest (Aug 3, 2012)

> For me the two best interpreters of Shostakovich's works are in order:
> 
> 1- Bernard Haitink
> 2- Mstislav Rostropovich
> ...


Interpretations are very much down to personal preference. I'd agree that Haitink is very good, but he tends to be too polished; Rostropovich did a superb live no.11 with the LSO but I didn't like his live no.8, though I haven't heard his earlier complete set on Warner; Rozhdestvensky is a safer bet overall, and Gergiev's only consistency is far too much Gergiev and not enough Shostakovich.


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## Fugue Meister (Jul 5, 2014)

Fair enough, I suppose I just enjoy that polished sound. I didn't quite understand the last criticism of Gergiev, care to elaborate?


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## JACE (Jul 18, 2014)

I know I'm late to the game, but no one has mentioned Ashkenazy's excellent recording of the Tenth with the Royal PO.










It's coupled with Barshai's orchestration of the Eighth String Quartet, which is also superb.

This Ashkenazy CD was one of the first recordings of Shostakovich's music that I ever heard -- along with Maazel's Fifth with the Cleveland Orchestra. These two recordings opened up Shostakovich's world to me, turning me into a life-long fan.


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## brotagonist (Jul 11, 2013)

^ Ashkenazy/Concertgebouw did some grand Shostakovich symphony performances. I have a number of theirs  but not the Tenth. I really love Barshai's orchestrations of some of the quartets. I believe there were 3 or 4 of them. They are some of my favourite Shostakovich works


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