Cheap Shostakovich/Mussorgsky: Symphony No. 10/Songs And Dances Of Death (Music) (Dmitry Shostakovich, Modest Mussorgsky, Mariss Jansons, Robert Lloyd) Price

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Customer Reviews of Shostakovich/Mussorgsky: Symphony No. 10/Songs And Dances Of Death

Best out of three
Only recently (March 2003) did I take the opportunity to listen to Shostakovich's 10th.
I've listened to this recording, a recording by Previn/London Philharmonic, and a live concert at Carnegie Hall with Jarvi/Cincinnati.
Without question the Jansons recording of the 10th is the most enjoyable. It takes one a while to feel comfortable with this symphony because of some lack of structure and theme.
But I agree with the review by "kph37" that this is an excellent recording. I can only rate it 4 stars since I've only heard three renditions.
I must say that I now listen to the 10th FREQUENTLY. I enjoy it's energy and unpredictability

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Wonderful Tenth, and Lloyd Sings Beautifully
Jansons (who taught for a while at the St Petersburg Conservatory) and the Philadelphia Orchestra have done Shostakovich a great service with this disc. This is my favorite of all Shostakovich's symphonies, and this is the best recording of it I have heard yet.

I could spend a good long time talking about the entire symphony. But I want to concentrate on one brief moment in the first movement.

The whole first movement is a broad, free sonata-design. I would place the start of the development proper, with the soft entrance of the bassoons/contrabassoon and timpani roll at rehearsal number 29 (in this Kalmus miniature score edition, p. 25). Two clarinets in unison, with a pair of sf-p entrances, subtly enrich the texture. Then the two oboes, also in unison, are a clear arrival, and on reaching their second sustained note, third-space C, they are joined by the sopranino clarinet.

This, such a small-seeming detail, is really telling. On this recording, this moment is miraculously in tune, in a way I have never heard before (if I heard it this "in tune" back in Ohio the first time I heard the piece, I have no idea, now ... didn't know the score at the time, and was just rapt by the music).

At this point, Shostakovich was a deeply-experienced orchestrator, and he knew perfectly what to expect of almost any instrument in almost any situation. And it is clear that "gritty intonation" is exactly what he wants there.

If he had really wanted clean, pure intonation, he would perhaps have started off with a single oboe - two oboes in unison in that husky low range is, shall we say, a timbre rich in pitch-informants. So for cleanliness, he might have chosen a single oboe, and then added, to that third-space C, the flute, perhaps even two flutes in unison; the added timbre would be subtle, and perfectly assured, pitch-wise. Or even the regular soprano clarinet, which (keyed in A for this movement) would be reading an E-flat in the lower reaches of the sweet-toned clarino register.

As Shostakovich scored it, when the two oboes land on the C, they are joined by a sopranino clarinet, reading a throat-tone A - a note which requires particular skill (and a little luck) to "shade" so that it is in tune.

In fact, if Shostakovich had really wanted to give the E-flat clarinet player an even chance of landing on that A in tune with the oboes, he could have had the sopranino clarinet start with the oboes - for the two measures which the oboes play before the E-flat clarinet comes in, would lie very easily on the clarinet.

Shostakovich was no green conservatory student at this point, so when he writes like this, in a manner against which most orchestration textbooks would warn you in large, bold-face, optic yellow type, he must assuredly mean it.

So maybe the miraculously fine intonation on this Jansons/Phila/EMI recording is, perversely, somewhat contrary to the composer's wishes ....

Can't leave off, though, without pointing out that the marvelous whirlwind scherzo of this symphony sounds great on this disc -- while the brasses get loud, you still hear TIMBRE and not just shriek. God, I love this piece.

Robert Lloyd is in great voice for the Mussorgsky, and Shostakovich's orchestration is both brilliant, and perfectly in character. I have heard recordings of both Vishnevskaya and Arkhipova singing these, and they can both sing these wonderfully; but nevertheless, I feel a bass is needed for this song-cycle. Lloyd's voice is perfect, and the Philadelphia Orchestra are the perfect accompaniment.