wimpel69
01-08-2019, 12:31 PM
Please request the FLAC links in this thread. PM's will be ignored.
Music and album covers (+ "Concertos" booklet) included.
"This brand-new cycle of all Shostakovich’s symphonies is a must buy
because of its outstanding performance, great interpretation,
and magnificent recording."
Musicweb
"The standard across all six [concertos] is superlatively high -
again as recorded here none of the players give anything to any
more famous names from across the years."
Musicweb
The vibrant Russian conductor Alexander Sladkovsky is acclaimed as an aristocrat under the new generation of
Russian conductors. “His vivacious and genuine, at the same time thoughtful and deep music making, alongside the
infectious energy, captures every audience.” (Belcanto.ru) Since 2010 he is the Artistic Director and Chief Conductor
of the Tatarstan National Symphony Orchestra in the city of Kazan (Tatarstan, Russia), which transformed into one
of the finest orchestras in Russia. “It became an absolute necessity to talk about the “Kazan Miracle” created by
maestro Sladkovsky and the Tatarstan National Symphony Orchestra. It is a unique and captivatingly successful
story of recreating an orchestra, delicately yet powerfully bringing it up to the peaks of great performing art.”
Alexander Sladkovsky is the founder and Artistic Director of many different festivals in Kazan, such as the
Rachmaninoff festival “White Lilac”, open air opera festival “Kazan Autumn”, “Denis Matsuev Meets Friends”,
and Gubaidulina Festival “Concordia”.
In May 2001, Alexander Sladkovsky conducted a concert at the Hermitage Theatre in honour of Her Royal Majesty
Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands. He also led concerts in honour of the President of Russia Vladimir Putin, the
President of the USSR Mikhail Gorbachev, and the Presidents of the United States Bill Clinton and George W. Bush,
wherein a concert was held during the festivities for St. Petersburg’s 300th Anniversary with President
George W. Bush in attendance.
His recent highlights in the 2015-16 season were collaborations with the Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte-Carlo,
Sinfonia Varsovia, State Academic Symphony Orchestra of Russia “Svetlanov Orchestra”, and Russian National
Orchestra, among others.
In October 2013 Sladkovsky was invited by Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia to conduct works by Rachmaninoff
during the anniversary concerts dedicated to the composer. In the same season he was re-invited to conduct several
concerts with a Tchaikovsky programme. Previous collaborations have included Bolshoi Theatre, State Academic
Symphony Orchestra of Russia “Svetlanov Orchestra”, Russian National Orchestra, St. Petersburg Philharmonic
Orchestra, Tchaikovsky Symphony Orchestra of Russian Radio, National Philharmonic of Russia, Orchestra Sinfonica
Siciliana, Dresden Philharmonic Orchestra, Nieders�chsisches Staatsorchester Hannover, Orchestra of Theatro
Municipal De S�o Paulo, orchestras of the Moscow, Novosibirsk and Belgrade Philharmonic, Orchestra of the
Hungarian State Opera, Sinfonia Varsovia, Orchestra del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, Orchestre Philharmonique
de Monte-Carlo, and Concerto Budapest Orchestra.
Music Composed by
Dmitri Shostakovich
Played by the
Tatarstan National Symphony Orchestra
With the
Masters of Choral Singing
And
Pyotr Migunov (bass)
Natalia Muradymova (soprano)
Lukas Geniušas (piano)
Dmitry Masleyev (piano)
Sergey Dogadin (violin)
Pavel Milyukov (violin)
Alexander Buzlov (cello)
Alexander Ramm (cello)
Conducted by
Alexander Sladkovsky
"This brand-new cycle of all Shostakovich’s symphonies is a must buy because of its outstanding performance, great interpretation, and magnificent recording. The Tatarstan National Symphony Orchestra and their music director Alexander Sladkovsky are largely unfamiliar on the international musical circuit; however, they have been touring to Western Europe making well reviewed visits to Germany and the Musikverein in Vienna in recent years. Melodiya have issued a box set of Mahler symphonies 1, 5 and 9 coupled with the vintage recordings by Kondrashin and the Moscow Philharmonic, and, a well-received set of all the Shostakovich concertos with outstanding young Russian soloists. Sladkovsky was educated in Moscow and St Petersburg and began working with orchestras in St Petersburg, before guest conducting with different Russian orchestras. He worked as an assistant to Mariss Jansons, and to Mstislav Rostropovich. The orchestra which is based in Kazan has a distinguished history particularly when they were under Nathan Rakhlin (1967-1979). Rakhlin, with the USSR SSO, gave the world premiere of Shostakovich’s Eleventh Symphony in 1957; other conductors in the Tatar orchestra’s history include Mark Paverman, Fuat Mansurov and Vladimir Ziva. Since he was appointed in 2010, Sladkovsky has created a top-class ensemble with some marvellously gifted musicians; significantly the orchestra were given Italian instruments as a gift by the President of Tatarstan.
This new set of Shostakovich symphonies is notable because it is the first to be recorded by an orchestra outside the two main cities of Moscow and St Petersburg and the first Russian complete recordings since the cycle under Rozhdestvensky and the Ministry of Culture Symphony Orchestra. The latter was released by JVC in Japan, and in the UK by Olympia in the 1980s, and later by BMG Melodiya in the 1990s. This cycle may be difficult to get hold of; however, the remastered 2006 issue on CD by Melodiya under Kondrashin is available. I have compared the new set with Kondrashin’s cycle, with Mravinsky’s recordings, and the one by Dmitrij Kitajenko and the Gurzenich Orchestra K�ln issued by Capriccio in 2005. There is an incomplete cycle by Gergiev and his Mariinsky Orchestra on the Mariinsky label, which currently lacks nos. 12, 13, and 14. The 2016 box from Melodiya, with different conductors and orchestras recorded between 1961 and 1984, is of historic importance.
This new sturdy Melodiya box comes with two 26-page booklets, one in Russian, the other in English, with informative and well translated studies by Boris Mukosey, albeit without translations of the vocal works, and biographies on Sladkovsky, orchestra, choir and soloists. An admirable feature of this release are El Lisitsky’s paintings of the 1920s and 1930s period of Soviet art which decorate each cardboard sleeve, the most attractive I have seen from this company. This release was sponsored by KPMG, and the Novy Vek bank, who supported previous release of the Shostakovich concertos. The ‘Leningrad’ symphony is on two CDs, and the Symphony No 3 takes up one CD. There are no fillers, like Kitajenko’s set, but Kondrashin’s has the Second Violin Concerto, the Execution of Stepan Razin, and two orchestral and choral pieces.
One of the great assets of this new Melodiya set is that the Tatarstan musicians apply themselves to the early pieces as they would to the more celebrated of the composer’s works. It Clearly, the conductor’s respectful treatment has allowed him to make his own judgement on interpreting Shostakovich. One issue which makes this cycle very desirable, is the outstanding quality of the recordings. They are of a very high standard; the engineers have caught the acoustics admirably and in a manner which benefits this orchestra. The mike settings are close, but not overly so.
Symphony Sladkovsky Kondrashin Kitajenko
1 32.30 32.50 34.30
2 17.31 16.46 22.20
3 31.18 26.20 33.20
4 63.20 59.36 69.04
5 45.37 41.30 48.10
6 31.30 26.29 33.30
7 80.48 71.10 83.00
8 64.38 56.30 69.21
9 25.20 23.30 24.50
10 54.29 48.58 58.41
11 56.21 53.53 65.17
12 40.45 36.25 41.05
13 59.34 54.07 64.13
14 50.38 48.45 51.20
15 49.04 40.30 45.30
Symphony No 1 is admirably performed and it becomes obvious the orchestra have magnificent woodwind - notably the clarinet of Arthur Mukhametshin and the flute of Venera Porfirieva – and an equally fine brass group led by Sergey Antonov. The sharp woodwind and brilliant intonation fully express Shostakovich’s penchant for irony and the grotesque; in the second movement, Sladkovsky adopts a quick pace: this is Shostakovich with a smile, and the piano playing of Edward Akhmatov is extraordinary. There is just a hint of the conductor’s voice at the end. In the third movement, we hear the admirable first violin of Nikolay Usanov, and the brilliant trumpet solo by Denis Petrov. The ensemble playing is excellent in the fast-paced finale, which comes to a great climax. Jansons has made three recordings, all of which are recommendable, and it is difficult to dismiss Kondrashin’s fine recording too. A common feature of Kitajenko’s traversal of the Shostakovich symphonies is the close miking and the high level of recording.
Symphony No 2 is a remarkable recording; we hear the low strings invoking a gathering of the masses, then the developing theme is infectious, for the brass enter the fray with a solo from the trumpet; suddenly it explodes in quirky sounds, anticipating Ligeti and Penderecki forty years later, and soon we hear a factory horn, followed by the mixed chorus, then a repetition of the factory horn, all culminating in a superbly controlled climax. This recording is revelatory, because Sladkovsky treats the symphony as a work from the composer’s early pioneering years when he was influenced by the revolution; as such, it comes across as a genuinely thought-provoking, avant-garde symphony.
Symphony No 3 is in a similar socialist-realist mode and its sincerity is fascinating. The opening clarinet threnody by Dmitry Zgonnik is soulful, the plucking strings create a tentative mood, and the woodwind are again stunning. The second idea on the brass is superbly played as if they really believe in this music, with the clarion calls from the brass and scurrying strings, and gorgeous strains from the trumpet, responding to the clarinet of Zgonnik. A beautiful graceful theme develops into a heroic one for woodwind and the brass races to a brilliantly mad climax as if for an execution, when a drum-roll relieves the tension. Sladkovsky’s treatment of these two early neglected symphonies is the surprise of this set and prepares one for the fine interpretations to come.
The dramatic opening of Symphony No 4 makes it clear that there are outstanding virtuosi in this orchestra; the phrasing is excellent throughout, and there is a beautiful flute passage, again from Porfirieva, in the second movement. A marvellously sustained atmosphere of suspense and quietude is sustained through to the final bars. Powerful, assertive passages for the flutes and oboes, exhibiting masterly control of different emotions, then a fragmentary waltz section, are played by the musicians as if their lives depend on it. Time stands still; this is a quite marvellous performance. However, Kondrashin extracts all the stress and passion from this score, and while the Tatars play magnificently, there is simply less angst here than we hear from the Muscovites.
By the time we come to Symphony No 5, Sladkovsky’s recordings are made at a marginally lower recording level than those by Kitajenko, allowing for easier listening on headphones. Despite the remastering of the Kondrashin cycle, these modern digital recordings made in Kazan are better, excelling in detail. With the momentous opening, followed by thoughtful and reflective playing, an idea of great beauty arrives, with superb playing by the solo flute of Porfirieva, balanced by the piano and the brass chorale. In the slickly played second movement, tempi are brisk and there is an almost perfect balance in the recording. A theme in the brass intones music from Benatzky’s The White Horse Inn, followed again by wonderful flute playing. In the slow movement, the conductor adopts a funereal pace. This is most sensitively controlled, the flute and clarinets share the probing theme, trailed by a plaintive cry from Ramil Safin’s bassoon. In the finale, Sladkovsky adopts a brisk tempo; the strings are triumphant and celebratory, then there is a slow build-up of momentum; harp, timpani, brass, woodwind join in with a clarion call from the brass and drums, the tension builds at a steady pace, and triumph is delivered by the timpani. General recommendations for this symphony may be the recordings by Ancerl on Supraphon and Maxim Shostakovich’s with the USSR SSO on Melodiya - and of course the three recordings by Mravinsky’s Leningraders.
In Sladkovsky’s take on Symphony No 6, the opening allows for great expectation, with glorious playing from the trumpet of Denis Petrov, and again flute with the cor anglais in an almost heavenly section. In the second movement, there is some mercurial woodwind playing, with the high-flying flute of Porfirieva beautifully announced. In the finale, a merry dance in a brisk, joyful tempo, hints at Haydn and Rossini, with a hint of parody of Mozart’s Symphony No 40. Again, Mravinsky’s 1965 live recording is the main choice, despite the deficiencies in recording.
To displace Svetlanov’s fine 1968 recording is difficult, but the Tatarstan musicians come close here; this Symphony No 7 has a slower tempo than Kondrashin or Kitajenkonand there is some beautiful oboe playing five minutes in from Andrew Shubin, just before the great march with the famous rhythm on the strings, quoting of Danilo’s song from Lehar’s Merry Widow. There is wonderful interplay between the woodwind, and piano, at 12 minutes; here, the great theme is at its height. At 19 minutes there is a solo for cor anglais from Nikitin, then the piano permits reality to intervene, the brass invokes a threat and the heroic woodwind theme increases in tempo, like a Wagnerian warning, providing a return to serene beauty, barely alive. In the second movement, we hear a gentle, leisurely theme on the clarinet of Mukhametshin’s clarinet, then an idyllic, romantic interlude for bassoon. The slow movement is performed magnificently, and the finale recalls the victory motif with which it began, akin to Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony, bringing this outstanding recording to a superb conclusion. Ancerl on Supraphon and Bernstein, in his second setting on DG, also made fine recordings. Kondrashin adopts a brisk pace throughout, and certainly emphasises the dramaturgical sense of the Seventh.
In the second of the war trilogy symphonies, No 8, Sladkovsky adopts a marginally slower pace at the opening; with the arrival of the second theme at 5 minutes, there is a spine-chilling beauty in the almost funereal pace, allowing for a great building of tension at 13 minutes. Later at 17 minutes, the brass, woodwind deliver a great climax, after which the cor anglais is accompanied by fluttering strings; at 21 minutes, it settles down, and we return to the opening hesitant theme. The bright piccolo and woodwind interplay n the allegretto, then the cheeky tune on the woodwind is reprised and the strings return to normality providing a cessation to the preceding angst. In the spirited allegro, the strident toccata idea on low strings and the clarion call on Dmitry Trubakov’s trumpet are spectacular; the violins are immaculate in their intonations, the brass give warning shots, and the horns, the trumpet, tam-tam, and timpani all build to a terrible thunder clap which opens the Largo where we descend into despair, entering an icy landscape, almost immobile with the beauty of the horn play of Sergey Antonov. In the finale, with a bright idea on the flute, life reappears, with the build-up again through threatening chords from the violin of Maxim Manasypov, then the tension subsides with wonderful heavenly playing from the strings and finally there is peace. It is difficult to find a competitor to Mravinsky’s Eight, either in interpretation or starkness in musicality from the 1972 recording, though Kondrashin’s is still highly recommended. But this new version by Sladkovsky’s musicians is deservedly among the best.
Kondrashin is superb in the last war symphony, yet in Sladkovsky’s Symphony No 9, the chirpy woodwinds, all in a mode of high spirits, are magnificent, and the trumpet solo is to die for! In the Largo, there is an exemplary brilliant brass section and wonderful bassoon playing from Safin. In the bright, and chirpy allegretto, there is tremendous build-up of excitement, like a circus parody, driven at great pace. Kitajenko’s musicians exhibit splendid musicianship, but to my mind they are just a bit behind in the Tatarstan handling of this mercurial piece, and marginally slower.
In Sladkovsky’s take on the magisterial Symphony No 10 there is beautiful playing on strings, controlled in masterly fashion in a threatening atmosphere. The scherzo, with a hint of the Georgian folk song Suliko, is brilliant, stirring and tremendously exciting, not fearsome, driven at fantastic pace, with every department of the orchestra on top form. In the slow movement, the horn solo by Antonov invokes a Mahler song ‘Life and Death are Dark’, while the strings develop an episode of great tension, before the return to solo horn. In the finale, the we hear a mysterious uninviting mood, on the solitary cor anglais, and delivering of the Suliko idea challenging the monogram D.SCH, and a transition to the upbeat, optimistic finale. Karajan’s first recording on DG remains among the finest; Mravinsky’s, Kondrashin’s and Kitajenko’s performances are outstanding, too, but the Tatarstan musicians certainly present fine competition here.
Now we approach two mature Shostakovich works influenced by ‘socialist-realism’. In Symphony No 11, the Tatarstan orchestra provide tremendously exciting playing, Sladkovsky directs his orchestra to evoke the mixture of events and the emotions narrated here, evincing noticeable influences from Mussorgsky. Kondrashin never seemed to take these ‘revolutionary’ symphonies seriously; he doesn’t allow the ‘protest songs’ to emerge from the score convincingly, racing over the music in his usual manner, certainly Kitajenko allows these themes to emerge fully, but Sladkovsky gives the better interpretation and quality of playing.
Surprisingly, Mravinsky performed Symphony No 12 often, and his recordings are the best, perhaps matched only by Kitajenko. The strength of Sladkovsky’s recording of this work is the relentless momentum, with crystal clear woodwind articulation of the strident noble theme, ‘Brothers to the Sun’, a worker’s song, later allowing for bombastic brass, and some thrilling playing by strings. His treatment of the adagio, is almost like a liturgy, with beautiful playing from clarinet and bassoon, and an immaculate build-up of tempo. The clarity of the instrumental playing revealing indicates belief in this music, and the allegro theme of victory emerges sincerely.
The tempo of Sladkovsky’s Symphony No 13, is slow; in the great opening movement ‘Baby Yar’, the Moscow-based Masters of Choral Singing are outstanding, the bass soloist is deeply inside this music, and the brass accompaniment is tremendous. Pyotr Migunov doesn’t have the grit of Gromadsky, but he is a fine actor/singer, in the mould of Nesterenko who is on the Kitajenko recording. Sladkovsky’s tempo is exactly right, with the obligatory wit in ‘Humour’, while in the ‘Careers’, the mood is serene, evocative, and very moving. Kondrashin gave the excellent world premiere but uses the second version of the text in his 1967 Melodiya recording (with the excellent Artur Eizen), whereas both Sladkovsky and Kitajenko use the original text which emphasises the anti-Semitism condemned in Yevtushenko’s poem. There is a recording of the 1962 premiere issued by the Moscow Conservatoire which would be a historical recommendation, but this is difficult obtain.
The string playing in Symphony No 14 is beautifully articulated, the orchestral dynamics are striking and there are two great voices in the soloists, Migunov and Natalia Muradymova, who characterise the varied poems vividly throughout. This is a great performance, both in the solo singing of De Profundis and in the two duets accompanied by fine percussion, and there is a wonderful cello solo from Mikhail Grinchuk. To my mind this work is more influenced by Musorgsky than Mahler; there are so many different mood changes, from the deathly, to the melodramatic, exaltation, reflection, mockery and the atmosphere of the shocking Der Tod des Dichters. Based on this recording, it would appear that Muradymova, educated at the Urals State Conservatoire and the Stanislavsky Opera in Moscow, has great prospects. Her voice is as close to the great Vishnevskaya’s voice as I have heard; she certainly comes close to the ideal in this tortuous and difficult part and Migunov, too, has a wonderfully sensitive voice. The texts are all sung in Russian.
Sladkovsky’s Symphony No 15 brings this outstanding cycle to a suitable culmination, showcasing his orchestra’s virtues with magical playing from the flute, xylophone and the trumpet. The ‘William Tell’ quotation is driven with great momentum and has real dramatic edge. In the adagio, there is some strikingly fine playing from funereal brass, solos from violin and cello intoning a plaintive melody, heart-rending, like the breathing of a dying man, while the allegretto marks a return to life. This is a cheeky parody, presenting Shostakovich as a joker, cocking a sardonic smile at life. We hear in turn Br�nnhilde’s death motif from Die Walk�re, the introduction on timpani, graceful music-making, then a building of tension to the terrible, fearful climax, then a reflective mood, the intonation of Wagner’s theme again, and a slow, burning out on the xylophone, as if a dying heart.
To sum up: the Kondrashin cycle is of great importance and highly recommendable, notably so in the case of the Fifth, Sixth, Eighth, and Ninth. He has a penchant for taking a fast pace in order to bring out the drama of the music and this is not necessarily a weakness, but there is also the question of the standard of playing, with problems in the reeds and strings of Soviet orchestras in the sixties, albeit that the problems in recording have mostly been overcome through remastering. The Kitajenko cycle is excellently played throughout, although the recording is closely miked and several are from live concerts at the K�ln Philharmonie, whilst others are from a local studio. Kitajenko’s timings are considerably longer in several symphonies: more than ten minutes in the Seventh, Eighth, and Tenth symphonies, while Sladkovsky is quite close to Kondrashin’s timing, usually only a few minutes behind. Briefly, Rozhdestvensky’s cycle with the Ministry of Culture SO, has an unnatural brilliance which is occasionally off-putting, and the standard of musicality is lower than that of other Russian orchestras. Jansons cycle for EMI employs different orchestras and is inconsistent and the Haitink cycle for Decca also features different orchestras, although the standard of playing and recording is excellent, but one wonders how much the musicians are ‘inside’ this music, as Haitink’s performances are like ‘orchestral showpieces’ without depth and gravitas - which is not the case with Sladkovsky’s cycle. One factor relevant in judging these different cycles, is that the Kondrashin cycle was performed by musicians who were living during the ‘Sturm und Drang’ of the Soviet era and the music was ‘inside them’, whilst that is not the case with the German musicians and neither is it with Sladkovsky’s musicians. Today’s musicians in Russia have different problems in their daily lives, more of economic uncertainty than of life and death; however, there is also the question of how Shostakovich’s symphonies lie in the purely musical sense. I think the great merit of this cycle by Sladkovsky and his musicians is that they perform them as classics, as musical masterpieces by one of the great 20th century composers. This new cycle can be judged all round as one of the best performed, best interpreted and best recorded available and can as such be highly recommended."
Musicweb
"His orchestral colleagues on both those sets are, as here, the Tatarstan Symphony Orchestra and goodness me they are quite superb in Shostakovich. I hanker rather nostalgically after the raw power of Soviet ensembles and while there is none of that here, instead there is a legacy of intensity and dynamism that is absolutely right for this composer. Sladkovsky as well is utterly at home in this idiom - time and again his musical choices just feel right. Not always completely predictable or 'standard' - but they work. Allied to this - I really do feel there is a sense of continuity across all six works. Yes of course masterpieces such as these can and should be interpreted in a variety of ways but I have enjoyed greatly the way Sladkovsky manages to bind the early 1st piano concerto to the late sorrowing 2nd Cello concerto.
So if orchestra and conductor are very good indeed, how about the soloists? All six are young prize winners at the International Tchaikovsky competition(s) - and in most cases many other competitions too. The standard across all six is superlatively high - again as recorded here none of the players give anything to any more famous names from across the years. Again, I would not say that this or that performance displaces old favourites, but in every case they are strongly imagined, wholly convincing and valid interpretations. Before moving onto the individual performances, a quick word about the engineering/production. This, too, is hugely impressive - no recording venue is given - there is a neutrality to the sound that suggests a dedicated recording studio rather than a concert hall or church-type venue. The recording is quite close and unglamorous - the upper strings have a slight edge to their tone that sounds like an accurate representation of the section's sound and is wholly apt for this music - a great warm bed of string tone is not really what Shostakovich is about.
One big hurrah is that the engineering does not make a big issue of the prominent trumpet part in the 1st piano concerto or the horn part in the 1st cello concerto. Far too often - in the former concerto especially - the trumpet part is treated as some kind of solo part. Well, yes, it is in the sense that apart from the strings it is the only other instrument and the writing is quite demanding, but I am sure it is quite wrong for it to be recorded or performed as a concertante part. Worth noting that the Boosey score places the trumpet on the page where it would be as an orchestral instrument and that the work is titled "concerto for Piano & String Orchestra". Here the trumpet line is always audible but without being placed at the front of the orchestral mix. The liner names all the orchestral soloists and again they are superb. Trumpeter Dmitri Trubakov joins pianist Lukas Geniušas in one of the best versions of the acerbic 1st piano concerto that I have heard in recent years. Quite why this work was included in the Decca 'Jazz' album of Shostakovich I never quite understood, except as a poor marketing ploy. The piece has nothing to do with jazz at all - instead what we are given here is the remarkable neo-classical character of the work. Geniušas plays with exceptional clarity and articulation. At the same time there is a dry-eyed objectivity to the work in the outer movements that emphasises the po-faced humour of so much of Shostakovich's elusive personality. But just when you thought all emotion was being kept on a tight rein, Geniušas can build a cadenza of cathartic power. Likewise, Trubakov for all the bubbling good humour of the first movement then spins a poignantly beautiful lyrical line in the second movement . Here, Trubakov's tone hearkens back to the great players of the Soviet era. Also, in this movement you hear for the first time a characteristic of the accompaniment that Sladkovsky brings to all the concerti - he favours a truly hushed, almost etiolated quality to the string sound that makes the music sound fragile and almost vulnerable. When juxtaposed against the stamping, accent-heavy passages the same players produce elsewhere in the works, it makes for a very wide expressive range.
The lack of recording information makes it impossible to know how closely together the 2 piano concerti were recorded. Dmitry Masleyev in the 2nd concerto seems to have been given a slightly richer piano sound than Geniušas. Without doubt this 2nd concerto is the 'lightest' of the six and its genesis as a work for the composer's young son often can give it the feeling of being a 'youth' concerto much in the style of the delightful Kabalevsky concerti of that description. Masleyev's achievement is to make this into a more substantial work than it is usually credited. The outer movements again are given real power and momentum and for the first time we are introduced to the excellence of the Tatarstan wind and brass. A consistent joy is the bite and brio of the horn section individually and collectively. Sladkovsky is never fast in the sense of pushing through this music, but on the other hand he does like to maintain tempi that keep the music flowing. So the central Andante of this 2nd Concerto benefits greatly from being simply what it is - a beautifully unadorned melody - rather than trying to make it sound like Rachmaninov-lite. By not offering any other coupling this disc does not even break the 40 minute barrier but I think this is the right choice - to have included one of the concertante film excerpts or a piano chamber work would have broken the vision of this set and when the music making is of this quality then quantity becomes irrelevant.
Disc two focuses on the two violin concerti and all of the good opinions formed by disc one are maintained. All praise to the engineering for allowing the soloists to sit back in the orchestral writing. The liner note makes the astute comment that the 1st concerto can almost be considered as a "violin-symphony" so, yes, there are times when details of the solo writing are obscured in complexity of an orchestral tutti, but to my ear this adds to the sense of struggle in a very appropriate way. All four of the remaining concerti are 'bigger' than the two piano works and another virtue of Sladkovsky's direction starts to become apparent. He is very good indeed at building musical tension over extended paragraphs. This becomes very clear in the opening Nocturne of the 1st violin concerto and especially the remarkable Passacaglia which is placed third. This concerto was a work that Shostakovich wrote during the fallout from the infamous Zhadanov in the late 1940's and it was a work considered too personal/dangerous to be released, while Stalin was still alive. The presence of the DSCH motif that was to become - quite literally - the composer's musical signature is used for one of the first times and embodies his defiance and resolve. The soloist here is Sergei Dogadin and he brings to the work remarkable maturity allied to complete technical mastery. The second movement scherzo is not as 'demoniac' as some versions I have heard - Oistrakh with Maxim Shostakovich on EMI/Warner careens through the movement in 6:32 with gleefully manic playing - he is 20 seconds faster still in a hissy BBC Legends recording with Rohzdestvensky. Dogadin is a weightier 7:15 - possibly the only time in the entire set I find myself hankering after a different approach. But then the aforementioned Passacaglia is built with supreme skill - arguably Shostakovich's finest concerto movement. If I was not completely convinced by the central scherzo, the closing Burlesque is again brilliant. Quite how or why I am not sure, but Sladkovsky and Dogadin find a cossack dance-like quality in the music, which I must admit never having registered to this degree before. This is one of those wonderful movements with Shostakovich, where you are not quite sure if he is smiling or grimacing. I recently heard for the first time the very impressive recording of these 2 concerti by Sergey Khachatryan with Kurt Masur. This is stunning playing, but, interestingly, by playing this closing Burlesque substantially faster than Dogadin, quite a bit of the character of the music is lost. What remains is still mightily impressive, but somehow Dogadin/Sladkovsky find in their earthy stamping weight more than just exciting display - but that said Khachatryan is very exciting!
With an opus number of 129 the 2nd violin concerto is the last of the six concerti. By this time the youthful certainties of the 1st piano concerto are just a distant memory - it might be a critical clich�, but this music is death-haunted. Recently I reviewed an impressively somber version of this work, played by Linus Roth. I enjoyed Roth's performance very much - he takes a daringly unflinching and extended view of the work. Pavel Milyukov is more 'centrist' - if this work could ever be deemed to have such an interpretation - and again I am moved all over again by the genius of this work. Directly comparing the opening of these two contrasting interpretations is telling. My earlier point about the engineering of this Melodiya set avoiding the 'glamour' of some recordings comes into immediate play. Roth's accompanists on his SA-CD set are the excellent LSO, but I do find the sheer weight and richness of the recording in a church acoustic to somehow make the music more 'hearty' than perhaps the composer wanted. Sladkovsky deploys his preference for pared-back tone (the score marking after all is just mp) with the soloist entering p. Milyukov finds a fragile musing from which he and Sladkovsky then can build a perfectly paced implacable build over the work's opening pages. The joy of hearing this work as part of the entire set shows how Shostakovich developed his compositional traits, albeit with a change in emphasis across his entire working life. By this later concerto, the slabs of implacable brass/horn tone are set as shocking contrasts to lighter instrumental textures. This was something Shostakovich was experimenting with right back in his 1st Symphony, but by the late works the conflict between these extremes are more explicit, bleaker. This is where the edgy tone of the Tatarstan horns and the laser-like intensity of the wind soloists pays great dividends - even in this familiar music the juxtaposition of musical ideas shocks when played with this conviction.
All of which carries over again into the final disc of the two cello concerti. By the early 60's Shostakovich could explicitly build an entire work out of his DSCH motif and of course so it is with the 1st cello concerto. I doubt any player will ever supersede Rostropovitch's reference recordings - it would be foolish to try - but again this pair of new recordings are very impressive indeed. I could always do with as much contra-bassoon as the mixer will allow in No.1 and that is slightly lacking here. However, a perfectly balanced and suitably bravura horn solo part from Sergei Antonov and dynamic timpani playing makes up for that minor cavil. But, again, it is the sense of climaxes being inexorably built by both Sladkovsky and cellist Alexander Buzlov that lingers longest in the memory. Buzlov is excellent in the cadenza that links the pained musings of the 2nd movement Moderato to the closing Allegro con moto. Again Sladkovsky finds a stamping cossack feel that, once you hear it, seems obvious, but it notable in its absence in other performances.
Likewise in the set's final work. In many ways the 2nd Cello concerto is the Cinderella of these six works. My sense is that it is the most elusive of the group, but that is not to say it represents any kind of diminishment in quality. Interestingly it is also the second longest of the concerti with two substantial outer movements dwarfing a four minute central Allegretto. As an aside - did any composer ever use such terms as allegretto so often or so elusively? In that central movement the Tatastan woodwind have the pawky, eccentric character of the writing off to perfection, with the horns blaring in with disdainful irritation. For performers I think it is this structure that causes the greatest problem - the opening movement in particular can seem to meander with the sparse textures and gnomic musical phrases not as obviously appealing as in the other works. So huge credit again to Sladkovsky, here accompanying cellist Alexander Ramm, for making the music seem so inexorable and inevitable. Perhaps because of its underappreciated status, I am tempted to say this is the most impressive performance in this most impressive set. All the elements of formal control, individual and collective virtuosity and character and a sure-handed understanding of the motivations behind the music come together in one of the most impressive versions of this work I have ever heard. Although not the latest opus number, as previously mentioned, there is something wholly apposite about this set tickering off into a musical void with the bizarrely effective conclusion - Ramm making more of the pizzicato glissandi than I have heard before.
The set is presented rather attractively in a cardboard tri-fold arrangement with the booklet tucked into to front sleeve. The booklet comes in cyrillic and English only and includes detailed biographies and photographs of the artists as well as some astute information about the individual works . However, the translation is not the great glory of the set - my favourite line apropos the 1st piano concerto states; "he surrenders himself to the lyrical bits with gusto and confidently fugles[!?] the orchestra in the energetic motion of the finale". Answers on a postcard please .... But, that apart, this is a set of quite unexpectedly excellent quality. Every element of the music making and engineering is really first rate. So good in fact that it becomes a strong contender for one of my discs of the year. For a modern survey of Russian interpretations of these classic 20th Century Soviet concertos this is simply superb - bravo to all involved!"
Musicweb
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Music and album covers (+ "Concertos" booklet) included.
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Music and album covers (+ "Concertos" booklet) included.
"This brand-new cycle of all Shostakovich’s symphonies is a must buy
because of its outstanding performance, great interpretation,
and magnificent recording."
Musicweb
"The standard across all six [concertos] is superlatively high -
again as recorded here none of the players give anything to any
more famous names from across the years."
Musicweb
The vibrant Russian conductor Alexander Sladkovsky is acclaimed as an aristocrat under the new generation of
Russian conductors. “His vivacious and genuine, at the same time thoughtful and deep music making, alongside the
infectious energy, captures every audience.” (Belcanto.ru) Since 2010 he is the Artistic Director and Chief Conductor
of the Tatarstan National Symphony Orchestra in the city of Kazan (Tatarstan, Russia), which transformed into one
of the finest orchestras in Russia. “It became an absolute necessity to talk about the “Kazan Miracle” created by
maestro Sladkovsky and the Tatarstan National Symphony Orchestra. It is a unique and captivatingly successful
story of recreating an orchestra, delicately yet powerfully bringing it up to the peaks of great performing art.”
Alexander Sladkovsky is the founder and Artistic Director of many different festivals in Kazan, such as the
Rachmaninoff festival “White Lilac”, open air opera festival “Kazan Autumn”, “Denis Matsuev Meets Friends”,
and Gubaidulina Festival “Concordia”.
In May 2001, Alexander Sladkovsky conducted a concert at the Hermitage Theatre in honour of Her Royal Majesty
Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands. He also led concerts in honour of the President of Russia Vladimir Putin, the
President of the USSR Mikhail Gorbachev, and the Presidents of the United States Bill Clinton and George W. Bush,
wherein a concert was held during the festivities for St. Petersburg’s 300th Anniversary with President
George W. Bush in attendance.
His recent highlights in the 2015-16 season were collaborations with the Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte-Carlo,
Sinfonia Varsovia, State Academic Symphony Orchestra of Russia “Svetlanov Orchestra”, and Russian National
Orchestra, among others.
In October 2013 Sladkovsky was invited by Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia to conduct works by Rachmaninoff
during the anniversary concerts dedicated to the composer. In the same season he was re-invited to conduct several
concerts with a Tchaikovsky programme. Previous collaborations have included Bolshoi Theatre, State Academic
Symphony Orchestra of Russia “Svetlanov Orchestra”, Russian National Orchestra, St. Petersburg Philharmonic
Orchestra, Tchaikovsky Symphony Orchestra of Russian Radio, National Philharmonic of Russia, Orchestra Sinfonica
Siciliana, Dresden Philharmonic Orchestra, Nieders�chsisches Staatsorchester Hannover, Orchestra of Theatro
Municipal De S�o Paulo, orchestras of the Moscow, Novosibirsk and Belgrade Philharmonic, Orchestra of the
Hungarian State Opera, Sinfonia Varsovia, Orchestra del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, Orchestre Philharmonique
de Monte-Carlo, and Concerto Budapest Orchestra.
Music Composed by
Dmitri Shostakovich
Played by the
Tatarstan National Symphony Orchestra
With the
Masters of Choral Singing
And
Pyotr Migunov (bass)
Natalia Muradymova (soprano)
Lukas Geniušas (piano)
Dmitry Masleyev (piano)
Sergey Dogadin (violin)
Pavel Milyukov (violin)
Alexander Buzlov (cello)
Alexander Ramm (cello)
Conducted by
Alexander Sladkovsky
"This brand-new cycle of all Shostakovich’s symphonies is a must buy because of its outstanding performance, great interpretation, and magnificent recording. The Tatarstan National Symphony Orchestra and their music director Alexander Sladkovsky are largely unfamiliar on the international musical circuit; however, they have been touring to Western Europe making well reviewed visits to Germany and the Musikverein in Vienna in recent years. Melodiya have issued a box set of Mahler symphonies 1, 5 and 9 coupled with the vintage recordings by Kondrashin and the Moscow Philharmonic, and, a well-received set of all the Shostakovich concertos with outstanding young Russian soloists. Sladkovsky was educated in Moscow and St Petersburg and began working with orchestras in St Petersburg, before guest conducting with different Russian orchestras. He worked as an assistant to Mariss Jansons, and to Mstislav Rostropovich. The orchestra which is based in Kazan has a distinguished history particularly when they were under Nathan Rakhlin (1967-1979). Rakhlin, with the USSR SSO, gave the world premiere of Shostakovich’s Eleventh Symphony in 1957; other conductors in the Tatar orchestra’s history include Mark Paverman, Fuat Mansurov and Vladimir Ziva. Since he was appointed in 2010, Sladkovsky has created a top-class ensemble with some marvellously gifted musicians; significantly the orchestra were given Italian instruments as a gift by the President of Tatarstan.
This new set of Shostakovich symphonies is notable because it is the first to be recorded by an orchestra outside the two main cities of Moscow and St Petersburg and the first Russian complete recordings since the cycle under Rozhdestvensky and the Ministry of Culture Symphony Orchestra. The latter was released by JVC in Japan, and in the UK by Olympia in the 1980s, and later by BMG Melodiya in the 1990s. This cycle may be difficult to get hold of; however, the remastered 2006 issue on CD by Melodiya under Kondrashin is available. I have compared the new set with Kondrashin’s cycle, with Mravinsky’s recordings, and the one by Dmitrij Kitajenko and the Gurzenich Orchestra K�ln issued by Capriccio in 2005. There is an incomplete cycle by Gergiev and his Mariinsky Orchestra on the Mariinsky label, which currently lacks nos. 12, 13, and 14. The 2016 box from Melodiya, with different conductors and orchestras recorded between 1961 and 1984, is of historic importance.
This new sturdy Melodiya box comes with two 26-page booklets, one in Russian, the other in English, with informative and well translated studies by Boris Mukosey, albeit without translations of the vocal works, and biographies on Sladkovsky, orchestra, choir and soloists. An admirable feature of this release are El Lisitsky’s paintings of the 1920s and 1930s period of Soviet art which decorate each cardboard sleeve, the most attractive I have seen from this company. This release was sponsored by KPMG, and the Novy Vek bank, who supported previous release of the Shostakovich concertos. The ‘Leningrad’ symphony is on two CDs, and the Symphony No 3 takes up one CD. There are no fillers, like Kitajenko’s set, but Kondrashin’s has the Second Violin Concerto, the Execution of Stepan Razin, and two orchestral and choral pieces.
One of the great assets of this new Melodiya set is that the Tatarstan musicians apply themselves to the early pieces as they would to the more celebrated of the composer’s works. It Clearly, the conductor’s respectful treatment has allowed him to make his own judgement on interpreting Shostakovich. One issue which makes this cycle very desirable, is the outstanding quality of the recordings. They are of a very high standard; the engineers have caught the acoustics admirably and in a manner which benefits this orchestra. The mike settings are close, but not overly so.
Symphony Sladkovsky Kondrashin Kitajenko
1 32.30 32.50 34.30
2 17.31 16.46 22.20
3 31.18 26.20 33.20
4 63.20 59.36 69.04
5 45.37 41.30 48.10
6 31.30 26.29 33.30
7 80.48 71.10 83.00
8 64.38 56.30 69.21
9 25.20 23.30 24.50
10 54.29 48.58 58.41
11 56.21 53.53 65.17
12 40.45 36.25 41.05
13 59.34 54.07 64.13
14 50.38 48.45 51.20
15 49.04 40.30 45.30
Symphony No 1 is admirably performed and it becomes obvious the orchestra have magnificent woodwind - notably the clarinet of Arthur Mukhametshin and the flute of Venera Porfirieva – and an equally fine brass group led by Sergey Antonov. The sharp woodwind and brilliant intonation fully express Shostakovich’s penchant for irony and the grotesque; in the second movement, Sladkovsky adopts a quick pace: this is Shostakovich with a smile, and the piano playing of Edward Akhmatov is extraordinary. There is just a hint of the conductor’s voice at the end. In the third movement, we hear the admirable first violin of Nikolay Usanov, and the brilliant trumpet solo by Denis Petrov. The ensemble playing is excellent in the fast-paced finale, which comes to a great climax. Jansons has made three recordings, all of which are recommendable, and it is difficult to dismiss Kondrashin’s fine recording too. A common feature of Kitajenko’s traversal of the Shostakovich symphonies is the close miking and the high level of recording.
Symphony No 2 is a remarkable recording; we hear the low strings invoking a gathering of the masses, then the developing theme is infectious, for the brass enter the fray with a solo from the trumpet; suddenly it explodes in quirky sounds, anticipating Ligeti and Penderecki forty years later, and soon we hear a factory horn, followed by the mixed chorus, then a repetition of the factory horn, all culminating in a superbly controlled climax. This recording is revelatory, because Sladkovsky treats the symphony as a work from the composer’s early pioneering years when he was influenced by the revolution; as such, it comes across as a genuinely thought-provoking, avant-garde symphony.
Symphony No 3 is in a similar socialist-realist mode and its sincerity is fascinating. The opening clarinet threnody by Dmitry Zgonnik is soulful, the plucking strings create a tentative mood, and the woodwind are again stunning. The second idea on the brass is superbly played as if they really believe in this music, with the clarion calls from the brass and scurrying strings, and gorgeous strains from the trumpet, responding to the clarinet of Zgonnik. A beautiful graceful theme develops into a heroic one for woodwind and the brass races to a brilliantly mad climax as if for an execution, when a drum-roll relieves the tension. Sladkovsky’s treatment of these two early neglected symphonies is the surprise of this set and prepares one for the fine interpretations to come.
The dramatic opening of Symphony No 4 makes it clear that there are outstanding virtuosi in this orchestra; the phrasing is excellent throughout, and there is a beautiful flute passage, again from Porfirieva, in the second movement. A marvellously sustained atmosphere of suspense and quietude is sustained through to the final bars. Powerful, assertive passages for the flutes and oboes, exhibiting masterly control of different emotions, then a fragmentary waltz section, are played by the musicians as if their lives depend on it. Time stands still; this is a quite marvellous performance. However, Kondrashin extracts all the stress and passion from this score, and while the Tatars play magnificently, there is simply less angst here than we hear from the Muscovites.
By the time we come to Symphony No 5, Sladkovsky’s recordings are made at a marginally lower recording level than those by Kitajenko, allowing for easier listening on headphones. Despite the remastering of the Kondrashin cycle, these modern digital recordings made in Kazan are better, excelling in detail. With the momentous opening, followed by thoughtful and reflective playing, an idea of great beauty arrives, with superb playing by the solo flute of Porfirieva, balanced by the piano and the brass chorale. In the slickly played second movement, tempi are brisk and there is an almost perfect balance in the recording. A theme in the brass intones music from Benatzky’s The White Horse Inn, followed again by wonderful flute playing. In the slow movement, the conductor adopts a funereal pace. This is most sensitively controlled, the flute and clarinets share the probing theme, trailed by a plaintive cry from Ramil Safin’s bassoon. In the finale, Sladkovsky adopts a brisk tempo; the strings are triumphant and celebratory, then there is a slow build-up of momentum; harp, timpani, brass, woodwind join in with a clarion call from the brass and drums, the tension builds at a steady pace, and triumph is delivered by the timpani. General recommendations for this symphony may be the recordings by Ancerl on Supraphon and Maxim Shostakovich’s with the USSR SSO on Melodiya - and of course the three recordings by Mravinsky’s Leningraders.
In Sladkovsky’s take on Symphony No 6, the opening allows for great expectation, with glorious playing from the trumpet of Denis Petrov, and again flute with the cor anglais in an almost heavenly section. In the second movement, there is some mercurial woodwind playing, with the high-flying flute of Porfirieva beautifully announced. In the finale, a merry dance in a brisk, joyful tempo, hints at Haydn and Rossini, with a hint of parody of Mozart’s Symphony No 40. Again, Mravinsky’s 1965 live recording is the main choice, despite the deficiencies in recording.
To displace Svetlanov’s fine 1968 recording is difficult, but the Tatarstan musicians come close here; this Symphony No 7 has a slower tempo than Kondrashin or Kitajenkonand there is some beautiful oboe playing five minutes in from Andrew Shubin, just before the great march with the famous rhythm on the strings, quoting of Danilo’s song from Lehar’s Merry Widow. There is wonderful interplay between the woodwind, and piano, at 12 minutes; here, the great theme is at its height. At 19 minutes there is a solo for cor anglais from Nikitin, then the piano permits reality to intervene, the brass invokes a threat and the heroic woodwind theme increases in tempo, like a Wagnerian warning, providing a return to serene beauty, barely alive. In the second movement, we hear a gentle, leisurely theme on the clarinet of Mukhametshin’s clarinet, then an idyllic, romantic interlude for bassoon. The slow movement is performed magnificently, and the finale recalls the victory motif with which it began, akin to Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony, bringing this outstanding recording to a superb conclusion. Ancerl on Supraphon and Bernstein, in his second setting on DG, also made fine recordings. Kondrashin adopts a brisk pace throughout, and certainly emphasises the dramaturgical sense of the Seventh.
In the second of the war trilogy symphonies, No 8, Sladkovsky adopts a marginally slower pace at the opening; with the arrival of the second theme at 5 minutes, there is a spine-chilling beauty in the almost funereal pace, allowing for a great building of tension at 13 minutes. Later at 17 minutes, the brass, woodwind deliver a great climax, after which the cor anglais is accompanied by fluttering strings; at 21 minutes, it settles down, and we return to the opening hesitant theme. The bright piccolo and woodwind interplay n the allegretto, then the cheeky tune on the woodwind is reprised and the strings return to normality providing a cessation to the preceding angst. In the spirited allegro, the strident toccata idea on low strings and the clarion call on Dmitry Trubakov’s trumpet are spectacular; the violins are immaculate in their intonations, the brass give warning shots, and the horns, the trumpet, tam-tam, and timpani all build to a terrible thunder clap which opens the Largo where we descend into despair, entering an icy landscape, almost immobile with the beauty of the horn play of Sergey Antonov. In the finale, with a bright idea on the flute, life reappears, with the build-up again through threatening chords from the violin of Maxim Manasypov, then the tension subsides with wonderful heavenly playing from the strings and finally there is peace. It is difficult to find a competitor to Mravinsky’s Eight, either in interpretation or starkness in musicality from the 1972 recording, though Kondrashin’s is still highly recommended. But this new version by Sladkovsky’s musicians is deservedly among the best.
Kondrashin is superb in the last war symphony, yet in Sladkovsky’s Symphony No 9, the chirpy woodwinds, all in a mode of high spirits, are magnificent, and the trumpet solo is to die for! In the Largo, there is an exemplary brilliant brass section and wonderful bassoon playing from Safin. In the bright, and chirpy allegretto, there is tremendous build-up of excitement, like a circus parody, driven at great pace. Kitajenko’s musicians exhibit splendid musicianship, but to my mind they are just a bit behind in the Tatarstan handling of this mercurial piece, and marginally slower.
In Sladkovsky’s take on the magisterial Symphony No 10 there is beautiful playing on strings, controlled in masterly fashion in a threatening atmosphere. The scherzo, with a hint of the Georgian folk song Suliko, is brilliant, stirring and tremendously exciting, not fearsome, driven at fantastic pace, with every department of the orchestra on top form. In the slow movement, the horn solo by Antonov invokes a Mahler song ‘Life and Death are Dark’, while the strings develop an episode of great tension, before the return to solo horn. In the finale, the we hear a mysterious uninviting mood, on the solitary cor anglais, and delivering of the Suliko idea challenging the monogram D.SCH, and a transition to the upbeat, optimistic finale. Karajan’s first recording on DG remains among the finest; Mravinsky’s, Kondrashin’s and Kitajenko’s performances are outstanding, too, but the Tatarstan musicians certainly present fine competition here.
Now we approach two mature Shostakovich works influenced by ‘socialist-realism’. In Symphony No 11, the Tatarstan orchestra provide tremendously exciting playing, Sladkovsky directs his orchestra to evoke the mixture of events and the emotions narrated here, evincing noticeable influences from Mussorgsky. Kondrashin never seemed to take these ‘revolutionary’ symphonies seriously; he doesn’t allow the ‘protest songs’ to emerge from the score convincingly, racing over the music in his usual manner, certainly Kitajenko allows these themes to emerge fully, but Sladkovsky gives the better interpretation and quality of playing.
Surprisingly, Mravinsky performed Symphony No 12 often, and his recordings are the best, perhaps matched only by Kitajenko. The strength of Sladkovsky’s recording of this work is the relentless momentum, with crystal clear woodwind articulation of the strident noble theme, ‘Brothers to the Sun’, a worker’s song, later allowing for bombastic brass, and some thrilling playing by strings. His treatment of the adagio, is almost like a liturgy, with beautiful playing from clarinet and bassoon, and an immaculate build-up of tempo. The clarity of the instrumental playing revealing indicates belief in this music, and the allegro theme of victory emerges sincerely.
The tempo of Sladkovsky’s Symphony No 13, is slow; in the great opening movement ‘Baby Yar’, the Moscow-based Masters of Choral Singing are outstanding, the bass soloist is deeply inside this music, and the brass accompaniment is tremendous. Pyotr Migunov doesn’t have the grit of Gromadsky, but he is a fine actor/singer, in the mould of Nesterenko who is on the Kitajenko recording. Sladkovsky’s tempo is exactly right, with the obligatory wit in ‘Humour’, while in the ‘Careers’, the mood is serene, evocative, and very moving. Kondrashin gave the excellent world premiere but uses the second version of the text in his 1967 Melodiya recording (with the excellent Artur Eizen), whereas both Sladkovsky and Kitajenko use the original text which emphasises the anti-Semitism condemned in Yevtushenko’s poem. There is a recording of the 1962 premiere issued by the Moscow Conservatoire which would be a historical recommendation, but this is difficult obtain.
The string playing in Symphony No 14 is beautifully articulated, the orchestral dynamics are striking and there are two great voices in the soloists, Migunov and Natalia Muradymova, who characterise the varied poems vividly throughout. This is a great performance, both in the solo singing of De Profundis and in the two duets accompanied by fine percussion, and there is a wonderful cello solo from Mikhail Grinchuk. To my mind this work is more influenced by Musorgsky than Mahler; there are so many different mood changes, from the deathly, to the melodramatic, exaltation, reflection, mockery and the atmosphere of the shocking Der Tod des Dichters. Based on this recording, it would appear that Muradymova, educated at the Urals State Conservatoire and the Stanislavsky Opera in Moscow, has great prospects. Her voice is as close to the great Vishnevskaya’s voice as I have heard; she certainly comes close to the ideal in this tortuous and difficult part and Migunov, too, has a wonderfully sensitive voice. The texts are all sung in Russian.
Sladkovsky’s Symphony No 15 brings this outstanding cycle to a suitable culmination, showcasing his orchestra’s virtues with magical playing from the flute, xylophone and the trumpet. The ‘William Tell’ quotation is driven with great momentum and has real dramatic edge. In the adagio, there is some strikingly fine playing from funereal brass, solos from violin and cello intoning a plaintive melody, heart-rending, like the breathing of a dying man, while the allegretto marks a return to life. This is a cheeky parody, presenting Shostakovich as a joker, cocking a sardonic smile at life. We hear in turn Br�nnhilde’s death motif from Die Walk�re, the introduction on timpani, graceful music-making, then a building of tension to the terrible, fearful climax, then a reflective mood, the intonation of Wagner’s theme again, and a slow, burning out on the xylophone, as if a dying heart.
To sum up: the Kondrashin cycle is of great importance and highly recommendable, notably so in the case of the Fifth, Sixth, Eighth, and Ninth. He has a penchant for taking a fast pace in order to bring out the drama of the music and this is not necessarily a weakness, but there is also the question of the standard of playing, with problems in the reeds and strings of Soviet orchestras in the sixties, albeit that the problems in recording have mostly been overcome through remastering. The Kitajenko cycle is excellently played throughout, although the recording is closely miked and several are from live concerts at the K�ln Philharmonie, whilst others are from a local studio. Kitajenko’s timings are considerably longer in several symphonies: more than ten minutes in the Seventh, Eighth, and Tenth symphonies, while Sladkovsky is quite close to Kondrashin’s timing, usually only a few minutes behind. Briefly, Rozhdestvensky’s cycle with the Ministry of Culture SO, has an unnatural brilliance which is occasionally off-putting, and the standard of musicality is lower than that of other Russian orchestras. Jansons cycle for EMI employs different orchestras and is inconsistent and the Haitink cycle for Decca also features different orchestras, although the standard of playing and recording is excellent, but one wonders how much the musicians are ‘inside’ this music, as Haitink’s performances are like ‘orchestral showpieces’ without depth and gravitas - which is not the case with Sladkovsky’s cycle. One factor relevant in judging these different cycles, is that the Kondrashin cycle was performed by musicians who were living during the ‘Sturm und Drang’ of the Soviet era and the music was ‘inside them’, whilst that is not the case with the German musicians and neither is it with Sladkovsky’s musicians. Today’s musicians in Russia have different problems in their daily lives, more of economic uncertainty than of life and death; however, there is also the question of how Shostakovich’s symphonies lie in the purely musical sense. I think the great merit of this cycle by Sladkovsky and his musicians is that they perform them as classics, as musical masterpieces by one of the great 20th century composers. This new cycle can be judged all round as one of the best performed, best interpreted and best recorded available and can as such be highly recommended."
Musicweb
"His orchestral colleagues on both those sets are, as here, the Tatarstan Symphony Orchestra and goodness me they are quite superb in Shostakovich. I hanker rather nostalgically after the raw power of Soviet ensembles and while there is none of that here, instead there is a legacy of intensity and dynamism that is absolutely right for this composer. Sladkovsky as well is utterly at home in this idiom - time and again his musical choices just feel right. Not always completely predictable or 'standard' - but they work. Allied to this - I really do feel there is a sense of continuity across all six works. Yes of course masterpieces such as these can and should be interpreted in a variety of ways but I have enjoyed greatly the way Sladkovsky manages to bind the early 1st piano concerto to the late sorrowing 2nd Cello concerto.
So if orchestra and conductor are very good indeed, how about the soloists? All six are young prize winners at the International Tchaikovsky competition(s) - and in most cases many other competitions too. The standard across all six is superlatively high - again as recorded here none of the players give anything to any more famous names from across the years. Again, I would not say that this or that performance displaces old favourites, but in every case they are strongly imagined, wholly convincing and valid interpretations. Before moving onto the individual performances, a quick word about the engineering/production. This, too, is hugely impressive - no recording venue is given - there is a neutrality to the sound that suggests a dedicated recording studio rather than a concert hall or church-type venue. The recording is quite close and unglamorous - the upper strings have a slight edge to their tone that sounds like an accurate representation of the section's sound and is wholly apt for this music - a great warm bed of string tone is not really what Shostakovich is about.
One big hurrah is that the engineering does not make a big issue of the prominent trumpet part in the 1st piano concerto or the horn part in the 1st cello concerto. Far too often - in the former concerto especially - the trumpet part is treated as some kind of solo part. Well, yes, it is in the sense that apart from the strings it is the only other instrument and the writing is quite demanding, but I am sure it is quite wrong for it to be recorded or performed as a concertante part. Worth noting that the Boosey score places the trumpet on the page where it would be as an orchestral instrument and that the work is titled "concerto for Piano & String Orchestra". Here the trumpet line is always audible but without being placed at the front of the orchestral mix. The liner names all the orchestral soloists and again they are superb. Trumpeter Dmitri Trubakov joins pianist Lukas Geniušas in one of the best versions of the acerbic 1st piano concerto that I have heard in recent years. Quite why this work was included in the Decca 'Jazz' album of Shostakovich I never quite understood, except as a poor marketing ploy. The piece has nothing to do with jazz at all - instead what we are given here is the remarkable neo-classical character of the work. Geniušas plays with exceptional clarity and articulation. At the same time there is a dry-eyed objectivity to the work in the outer movements that emphasises the po-faced humour of so much of Shostakovich's elusive personality. But just when you thought all emotion was being kept on a tight rein, Geniušas can build a cadenza of cathartic power. Likewise, Trubakov for all the bubbling good humour of the first movement then spins a poignantly beautiful lyrical line in the second movement . Here, Trubakov's tone hearkens back to the great players of the Soviet era. Also, in this movement you hear for the first time a characteristic of the accompaniment that Sladkovsky brings to all the concerti - he favours a truly hushed, almost etiolated quality to the string sound that makes the music sound fragile and almost vulnerable. When juxtaposed against the stamping, accent-heavy passages the same players produce elsewhere in the works, it makes for a very wide expressive range.
The lack of recording information makes it impossible to know how closely together the 2 piano concerti were recorded. Dmitry Masleyev in the 2nd concerto seems to have been given a slightly richer piano sound than Geniušas. Without doubt this 2nd concerto is the 'lightest' of the six and its genesis as a work for the composer's young son often can give it the feeling of being a 'youth' concerto much in the style of the delightful Kabalevsky concerti of that description. Masleyev's achievement is to make this into a more substantial work than it is usually credited. The outer movements again are given real power and momentum and for the first time we are introduced to the excellence of the Tatarstan wind and brass. A consistent joy is the bite and brio of the horn section individually and collectively. Sladkovsky is never fast in the sense of pushing through this music, but on the other hand he does like to maintain tempi that keep the music flowing. So the central Andante of this 2nd Concerto benefits greatly from being simply what it is - a beautifully unadorned melody - rather than trying to make it sound like Rachmaninov-lite. By not offering any other coupling this disc does not even break the 40 minute barrier but I think this is the right choice - to have included one of the concertante film excerpts or a piano chamber work would have broken the vision of this set and when the music making is of this quality then quantity becomes irrelevant.
Disc two focuses on the two violin concerti and all of the good opinions formed by disc one are maintained. All praise to the engineering for allowing the soloists to sit back in the orchestral writing. The liner note makes the astute comment that the 1st concerto can almost be considered as a "violin-symphony" so, yes, there are times when details of the solo writing are obscured in complexity of an orchestral tutti, but to my ear this adds to the sense of struggle in a very appropriate way. All four of the remaining concerti are 'bigger' than the two piano works and another virtue of Sladkovsky's direction starts to become apparent. He is very good indeed at building musical tension over extended paragraphs. This becomes very clear in the opening Nocturne of the 1st violin concerto and especially the remarkable Passacaglia which is placed third. This concerto was a work that Shostakovich wrote during the fallout from the infamous Zhadanov in the late 1940's and it was a work considered too personal/dangerous to be released, while Stalin was still alive. The presence of the DSCH motif that was to become - quite literally - the composer's musical signature is used for one of the first times and embodies his defiance and resolve. The soloist here is Sergei Dogadin and he brings to the work remarkable maturity allied to complete technical mastery. The second movement scherzo is not as 'demoniac' as some versions I have heard - Oistrakh with Maxim Shostakovich on EMI/Warner careens through the movement in 6:32 with gleefully manic playing - he is 20 seconds faster still in a hissy BBC Legends recording with Rohzdestvensky. Dogadin is a weightier 7:15 - possibly the only time in the entire set I find myself hankering after a different approach. But then the aforementioned Passacaglia is built with supreme skill - arguably Shostakovich's finest concerto movement. If I was not completely convinced by the central scherzo, the closing Burlesque is again brilliant. Quite how or why I am not sure, but Sladkovsky and Dogadin find a cossack dance-like quality in the music, which I must admit never having registered to this degree before. This is one of those wonderful movements with Shostakovich, where you are not quite sure if he is smiling or grimacing. I recently heard for the first time the very impressive recording of these 2 concerti by Sergey Khachatryan with Kurt Masur. This is stunning playing, but, interestingly, by playing this closing Burlesque substantially faster than Dogadin, quite a bit of the character of the music is lost. What remains is still mightily impressive, but somehow Dogadin/Sladkovsky find in their earthy stamping weight more than just exciting display - but that said Khachatryan is very exciting!
With an opus number of 129 the 2nd violin concerto is the last of the six concerti. By this time the youthful certainties of the 1st piano concerto are just a distant memory - it might be a critical clich�, but this music is death-haunted. Recently I reviewed an impressively somber version of this work, played by Linus Roth. I enjoyed Roth's performance very much - he takes a daringly unflinching and extended view of the work. Pavel Milyukov is more 'centrist' - if this work could ever be deemed to have such an interpretation - and again I am moved all over again by the genius of this work. Directly comparing the opening of these two contrasting interpretations is telling. My earlier point about the engineering of this Melodiya set avoiding the 'glamour' of some recordings comes into immediate play. Roth's accompanists on his SA-CD set are the excellent LSO, but I do find the sheer weight and richness of the recording in a church acoustic to somehow make the music more 'hearty' than perhaps the composer wanted. Sladkovsky deploys his preference for pared-back tone (the score marking after all is just mp) with the soloist entering p. Milyukov finds a fragile musing from which he and Sladkovsky then can build a perfectly paced implacable build over the work's opening pages. The joy of hearing this work as part of the entire set shows how Shostakovich developed his compositional traits, albeit with a change in emphasis across his entire working life. By this later concerto, the slabs of implacable brass/horn tone are set as shocking contrasts to lighter instrumental textures. This was something Shostakovich was experimenting with right back in his 1st Symphony, but by the late works the conflict between these extremes are more explicit, bleaker. This is where the edgy tone of the Tatarstan horns and the laser-like intensity of the wind soloists pays great dividends - even in this familiar music the juxtaposition of musical ideas shocks when played with this conviction.
All of which carries over again into the final disc of the two cello concerti. By the early 60's Shostakovich could explicitly build an entire work out of his DSCH motif and of course so it is with the 1st cello concerto. I doubt any player will ever supersede Rostropovitch's reference recordings - it would be foolish to try - but again this pair of new recordings are very impressive indeed. I could always do with as much contra-bassoon as the mixer will allow in No.1 and that is slightly lacking here. However, a perfectly balanced and suitably bravura horn solo part from Sergei Antonov and dynamic timpani playing makes up for that minor cavil. But, again, it is the sense of climaxes being inexorably built by both Sladkovsky and cellist Alexander Buzlov that lingers longest in the memory. Buzlov is excellent in the cadenza that links the pained musings of the 2nd movement Moderato to the closing Allegro con moto. Again Sladkovsky finds a stamping cossack feel that, once you hear it, seems obvious, but it notable in its absence in other performances.
Likewise in the set's final work. In many ways the 2nd Cello concerto is the Cinderella of these six works. My sense is that it is the most elusive of the group, but that is not to say it represents any kind of diminishment in quality. Interestingly it is also the second longest of the concerti with two substantial outer movements dwarfing a four minute central Allegretto. As an aside - did any composer ever use such terms as allegretto so often or so elusively? In that central movement the Tatastan woodwind have the pawky, eccentric character of the writing off to perfection, with the horns blaring in with disdainful irritation. For performers I think it is this structure that causes the greatest problem - the opening movement in particular can seem to meander with the sparse textures and gnomic musical phrases not as obviously appealing as in the other works. So huge credit again to Sladkovsky, here accompanying cellist Alexander Ramm, for making the music seem so inexorable and inevitable. Perhaps because of its underappreciated status, I am tempted to say this is the most impressive performance in this most impressive set. All the elements of formal control, individual and collective virtuosity and character and a sure-handed understanding of the motivations behind the music come together in one of the most impressive versions of this work I have ever heard. Although not the latest opus number, as previously mentioned, there is something wholly apposite about this set tickering off into a musical void with the bizarrely effective conclusion - Ramm making more of the pizzicato glissandi than I have heard before.
The set is presented rather attractively in a cardboard tri-fold arrangement with the booklet tucked into to front sleeve. The booklet comes in cyrillic and English only and includes detailed biographies and photographs of the artists as well as some astute information about the individual works . However, the translation is not the great glory of the set - my favourite line apropos the 1st piano concerto states; "he surrenders himself to the lyrical bits with gusto and confidently fugles[!?] the orchestra in the energetic motion of the finale". Answers on a postcard please .... But, that apart, this is a set of quite unexpectedly excellent quality. Every element of the music making and engineering is really first rate. So good in fact that it becomes a strong contender for one of my discs of the year. For a modern survey of Russian interpretations of these classic 20th Century Soviet concertos this is simply superb - bravo to all involved!"
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