Search - Jesús López-Cobos :: Shostakovich: Symphonies Nos. 1 & 15

Astonishing 15th Symphony

Chris Honingh | Krommenie, NH Netherlands | 08/06/2001

(5 out of 5 stars)

"If we consider there is a time span of 45 years between the conceptions of Shostakovich's symphonies no. 1 and no. 15 (his last) it is incredible to ascertain that everything that made him a great and universal composer was present right at the beginning of his career. In most of his symphonies (which, as in Mahler's case, can be considered as a gesammtkunstwerk with numerous repetitions and interweaving threads) the sense for jocular esprit and brooding melancholy are a consistent factor, the rhythmic use of the instruments and above all, the great melodic parts for the solo instruments, never stop to surprise. In comparison with Bernstein's interpretation of the first Symphony on Sony Classical (SMK 47614) in SBM-format (recording of 1969) the Lopez-Cobos interpretation is played with less vigour and stamina, but the details of the composition blend more accurately with the totality of the work.
Due to the exeptional recording quality of this Telarc disc in DSD and a total playing time of almost 77 minutes you can't go wrong with this one!"

A 15th to rival Haitink (and better than all others)

P. SIMPSON | North Yorkshire, United Kingdom | 04/16/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Wasn't sure what to expect apart from great sound. The sound is certainly good as well as realistic. Perhaps the last ounce of sparkle (e.g. on triangles and cymbal) is missing, but i may just be being picky. Certainly, the performances have rapidly grown on me. I'm a big fan of the (seemingly unfashionable) Haitink recording of the 15th. because of its sanity, but this version adds a touch more flair to the sanity and also seems more organic and possibly even more coherent as a performance. To my surprise, this goes to the top of the heap (very easily over Rostropovich but also over Kondrashin and even over Maxim Shostakovich) and after a few more hearings may even supplant Haitink. And, of course, you get the bonus of a very good recording of the 1st symphony, which is probably more approachable to most people than Haitink's coupling of the songs from jewish folk poetry). Recommended, though if you wait a little longer it will probably come out on SACD, being a DSD recording and maybe that ultimnate sparkle in percussion may be there after all."

Brash in one and spectral in the other

Thomas F. Bertonneau | Oswego, NY United States | 04/24/2003

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Dmitri Shostakovich (1906 - 1975) arguably made the most significant contribution to the twentieth century development of the symphony after the work of Gustav Mahler. Like Mahler, he never avoided the popular appeal of near-cinematic drama or tunefulness and, again like Mahler, he sought to integrate folk material with the forms of the polyphonic tradition stemming from Bach. Shostakovich wrote fifteen symphonies in all. Two of them, the Second and the Third, deviate strongly from the norms of the genre and have been described as "poster-art symphonies" (later in life, their composer preferred to ignore them); but all the others correspond to expectation: they are in three, four, or five movements (or multiple movements in the case of the Fourteenth, a song-cycle with chamber orchestra) and the opening movement is usually an expanded sonata. Indeed, Shostakovich's breakthrough came with a symphony, his First (1925) in F-Minor, submitted as his graduation exercise from the then Petrograd Conservatory, where he studied with the world-weary but avuncular Alexander Glazunov. Shostakovich's early work shows the influence partly of Stravinsky and partly of Hindemith. We thus hear echoes of "Petrouschka" on the one hand and of the various "Kammermusiks" on the other. Present in embryo, so to speak, is the irony that pervades the composer's much later work, and a good performance of the First Symphony succeeds by bringing this element to the foreground. Jesús Lopez-Cobos and the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra perhaps bite less ferociously than they might, but they do discover a brooding quality in the slow and quiet passages of the second and third movements that suggests another powerful Shostakovich affinity - the Alban Berg of "Wozzeck," which had been performed in Russia in the 1920s. The Third Movement (Lento) benefits especially from this treatment. Listening to the Lopez-Cobos traversal of this score, I am made aware of how closely it forecasts the same composer's Ninth Symphony (1945). From the other end of Shostakovich's symphonic career, Lopez-Cobos offers the Fifteenth Symphony (1972) in A-Major, one of the last scores that the composer completed. The classic recording of the Fifteenth is the first, from 1974 or 75 (if I am not mistaken), with the composer's son Maxim leading the Moscow Philharmonic: the raw sound of the Russian orchestra, especially the rattling brass and sharp-voiced, satirical woodwinds, fits the music beautifully. Non-Russian orchestras invariably bring a smoother sound to the interpretation (with this score and with every other by the composer) than do Russian ones and the present case is no exception. What Lopez-Cobos lacks in mocking raspberry, however, he more than makes up for in dark luminosity. The Fifteenth - with its network of encoded musical and autobiographical allusions - belongs with the last three String Quartets in its gnomic and entirely "personal" quality. Lopez-Cobos takes the opening Allegretto quietly, in a way that distinguishes his reading from others and emphasizes the "interior" character of the music. The obvious quotations from Rossini (the "William Tell" Overture made famous for Americans by its association with the cowboy character of the Lone Ranger) and Rimsky-Korsakov ("The Golden Cockerel") acquire a ghostly, phantasmagoric quality; the bizarre fugato passages seem especially nocturnal and alienated. The longish Adagio, which follows, includes prominent parts for solos, such as the cello, the trombone, and the flute; Lopez-Cobos builds to the great climax in the brass most effectively. Between the slow movement and the Finale comes a typical Shostakovich scherzo, full of irony and weird turns. The Finale itself is a set of variations on the "Fate Theme" from Wagner's "Ring." It bears some resemblance formally to the variations-finale of Carl Nielsen's Sixth (and last) Symphony. As in the Fourteenth Symphony, percussion are to the fore, especially the xylophone, with its skeletal, hence mortal, implications. Telarc's engineering is superb. It well serves the conductor's entirely valid interpretation of the work. For a more mordant view, one might seek out Maxim Shostakovich or Mstislav Rostropovich. But Lopez-Cobos can stand on his own merits. No one coming to the Fifteenth Symphony would do badly by this disc."