Originally Posted by D.S Crowe
Although this is available as an MP3 Download,interested purchasers will have to resort to amazon marketplace to locate a copy of the CD. This is nothing short of criminal, as it is the best recording of this work bar none! It crept under the radar so to speak, as it was released just when the CD market was going into decline, and catalogue shelf life became short lived. I was one of the lucky purchasers on its initial release, but I only found it by accident!
Ashkenazy's transition from pianist to conductor has not been an outright success-I did not like his Cleveland Strauss series at all, and similarly much of his RPO output was frankly dull. However, his earlier recordings with the Concertgebouw and the Philharmonia were often superb, and I aprroached this CD with optimism-which proved to be totally justified. For this recording, Decca used the same tactic as they did with the Concertgebouw-they removed the seating and recorded the orchestra in the body of the hall. The St.Petersburg Philharmonie, being a wood-lined hall, was notorious for its acoustic difficulties during recordings-the resultant sound was usually very dry, as typified by the series of recordings RCA made there with Temirkanov. There has been millions spent on improving acoustics in the last couple of years, but Decca solved the problem perfectly.
There is simply no other recording of this work that has the weight of tone, strings AND brass, power of percussion and plangency of woodwind-it is stunning! They used to advertises discs as "Sonic Spectaculars"-and this is certainly one. Not even the Gergiev or The RCO Jansons can match it for sheer visceral impact. Conversely, the SPPO strings have never sounded so radiant, shining beautifully in the upper register and deeply resonant in the lower. The Dynamic range is very wide, with stunning contrast between pp and ff.
Of course, none of this would matter if the performance were not persuasive, and I am happy to report that I prefer as a performance only the recent Temirkanov live recording with this same orchestra in Geneva, but by a hairs's breadth, and it far exceeds the likes of Bernstein and Gergiev.
Ashenkazy finds the perfect tempo for the first movement, takes a strict classical approach for the second, a touch slower than some with quite a staccato rhythm, the third is searing and he really gives the orchestra its head at the tempo increase, and the fourth is as triumphant and uplifting as it needs to be, with cataclysmic percussion at the raucous climax. An absolute triumph as a performance and a recording-just stunning (a word I use too often but fully justified in this case!)
There is a fascinating vignette as an extra-the first track features a 40-odd second extract of the broadcast made by Shostakovich before the first performance-it doesn't illuminate the work , but gives this St.Petersburg recording an extra poignancy!
All admirers-nay LOVERS-of this great work should make every attempt to obtain this recording, and there should be a concerted campaign to have it reissued, even if at full price. It is without doubt the finest recording, and the performance is superb and ranks with best. Totally and unreservedly recommended!10 Stars
