Shostakovich-Soundtracks-Berlin: excelent trio and record!
villamarnava | 05/16/2003
(5 out of 5 stars)
"On December, 2002, I was in Berlin and I met this CD, but I decided to buy it another day... big mistake!! I never found it in Europe, fortunately I bought in amazon.com. Dont forget to order it now!About this CD, everything is good. The record was made in 2000, in Moscow, recreating the original Mosfilm sound and atmosphere. Good performance that makes you feel happy or worried. The soundtrack was composed by Shostakovich in 1949 orginally for this movie, as Khachaturian did it for Battle of Stalingrad picture -also available by Adriano conducting the Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra, Marco Polo, 1993- and in the same era pro-Stalin-post-Great-Patriotic-War Shostakovich composed the Stalind-prized Song of the Forest -available by Termikanov conducting St. Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra, RCA Victor, 1998-.
The greatness of the composition obviously enhance the peaceful and cheerful of the USSR during the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact -brightful orchestration- the threat of Nazi regime -dark music atmospheres-, the well known struggle for the Reichstag -the epic tone developed as best by Shostakovich- and the grand-finalle by the -hipotetic- arrival of Stalin into Berlin Airport -just superb-.
The best of the russian choral tradition is adopted by the composer -again, Song of Forest as reference- in three delightful episodes .
In addition to The Fall of Berlin, you may enjoy a good performance of the complete Suite "The Unforgettable Year 1919". This is not only a good sound track, its a great concert music of XXth century, and if you like Shostakovich or the epic genre music, you will love this CD."