BOSTON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA

Tussen 1936 en 1953 is Dmitri Shostakovich bevreesd dat hij wordt opgepakt, omdat hij bij Stalin in ongenade is gevallen. Shostakovich houdt evenwel van zijn land en probeert op het scherpst van de snede zijn werk doen. Andris Nelsons, gepokt en gemazeld in de Russische uitvoeringspraktijk, nam vorig jaar met de Boston Symphony Orchestra de tiende symfonie van Shostakovich op. Deze eerste opname in de serie Under Stalin’s Shadow leverde direct een Grammy Award op. Ook dit live dubbelalbum bevat drie uitstekend uitgevoerde symfonieën. Door zijn magnifieke aanpak levert Nelsons een krachtige vijfde af. Ook de donkere achtste symfonie uit het midden van de Tweede Wereldoorlog krijgt een intense vertolking net als de negende, die bijzonder licht van toon is. Schitterend album!



Shostakovich Under Stalin's Shadow: Symphonies Nos. 5, 8 & 9


Shostakovich:
Symphony No. 5 in D minor, Op. 47
Symphony No. 8 in C minor, Op. 65
Symphony No. 9 in E flat major, Op. 70

Hamlet - Concert Suite from incidental music, Op. 32a: Introduction And Night Patrol
Hamlet - Concert Suite from incidental music, Op. 32a: Funeral March
Hamlet - Concert Suite from incidental music, Op. 32a: Flourish And Dance Music
Hamlet - Concert Suite from incidental music, Op. 32a: The Hunt
Ophelia's Song (from Hamlet, Op. 32)
Hamlet - Concert Suite from incidental music, Op. 32a: Cradle Song
Hamlet - Concert Suite from incidental music, Op. 32a: Requiem

Boston Symphony Orchestra, Andris Nelsons




Andris Nelsons is the Music Director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra and in fall 2015 he was announced as Gewandhauskapellmeister of the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, commencing in the 2017/18 season. With both appointments, and in leading a pioneering alliance between these two esteemed institutions, Andris Nelsons is firmly underlined as one of the most renowned and innovative conductors on the international scene today.

Andris Nelsons even though he is only in his mid 30ies has had a long journey with Shostakovich. He is one of the last conductors of his generation who still grew up in the Russian and, more especially, the Soviet musical tradition ever since he started his training as a conductor. He studied in St Petersburg with Alexander Titov and also with Mariss Jansons. His new orchestra has had a great tradition in performing many of Shostakovich’s works in America for the first time.

This recording provides a kaleidoscope of Shostakovich’s struggle with historical events and political pressures. The pre-war eclectic but accessible and popular 5th, in which he would seem to bow to political pressure, ensured his temporary rehabilitation. The beautiful but dark and gloomy mid-war 8th provoked yet again his fall from favour and instead of providing the political authorities with a triumphant post-war 9th Symphony, Shostakovich wrote a light Haydnesque work which would not be performed until after Stalin’s death. Selections from the Hamlet Suite, possibly Shostakovich’s best film score, rounds out this 2 CD set.



In July last year, Andris Nelsons and the Boston Symphony Orchestra embarked upon a new recording project, entitled Shostakovich Under Stalin’s Shadow, with a splendid performance of Symphony No. 10. Today sees the release of the next instalment, with a further three symphonies (5, 8, and 9), all recorded live during the BSO’s 2015-16 season.
Andris Nelsons

Completed in August 1945, Symphony No. 9 is often considered to be one of Shostakovich's lighter works (indeed, there was some criticism of it at the time for being rather too flippant regarding its celebration of the end of the war), but what for me makes this performance interesting is how Nelsons takes care to temper any potential frivolity by bringing out the shade as well as the light, particularly in the second movement with its searching string writing and lonely, wandering solos for flute and clarinet. Having said that, there's no shortage of blithesome gusto in the third movement, including a fantastically impertinent trumpet solo. Despite moments like that, I did wonder if Nelsons was deliberately playing down some of the work's more whimsical gestures in order to present it as more of a serious piece, getting away from the idea of it as a sort of palate-cleansing jollity between the relative profundity of 8 and 10.

This intent seems to carry through into the Fifth Symphony also. A case in point is the first entry of the piano in the opening movement, immediately followed by all four horns playing in their very low register. Usually this moment is full of menace, fuelled partly by the horns often having a slightly rough edge to their sound, but Nelsons removes any crudeness to make them smoother and more rounded. It's fascinating to hear how this changes the mood from the usual one of open terror to something more quietly unsettling. This polished approach pays off in the third movement also, where there's a warmth to the string sound that is most affecting. It's desolate and brooding when necessary, though, and the end of that movement, with its bare celeste and harp writing, is powerful stuff.

Another great strength of these performances is the characterful contributions from the woodwind, not least in the second movement of the Eighth Symphony, which has plenty of chirping piccolo and E flat clarinet, and some pleasingly gruff contrabassoon. I’ve definitely heard more raucous performances of this movement, but as in the other symphonies Nelsons seems keen to keep things at the refined edge of the spectrum.

I should really take a moment to comment on the virtuosity of the Boston players: in the third movement of the Eighth, for instance, there are some impressive contributions from the violas, trombones, and tuba, and the jaunty, “circus band” interlude for solo trumpet and oompah brass is very well done. The passage for four flutter-tonguing flutes accompanied by pizzicato upper strings in the fourth movement is also a hugely effective moment.

As if all of that wasn’t enough, Nelsons also includes music from the Hamlet Suite which Shostakovich wrote for Nikolai Akimov's 1932 production of the play. It’s not the entire suite (seven out of the usual thirteen movements), but it’s all beautifully played, including a tender Cradle Song, a suitably sombre Funeral March, and a rousing rendition of The Hunt.

Originally this recording project was intended, as its name suggests, only to cover works produced under the influence of the Stalin regime (i.e. Symphonies 5-10), but we have just heard exciting news from Deutsche Grammophon that this endeavour will be expanded in scope to include live recordings of all fifteen Shostakovich symphonies, as well as the opera, Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk: I look forward very much to hearing these future instalments!