Search - Dmitry Shostakovich, Stanislaw Skrowaczewski, Hallé :: Shostakovich: Symphony No.10

Even Better Than I Expected

07/31/2002

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This CD came recommended to me through a review I read somewhere quite a while ago. Being an admirer of Skrowaczewski, I hesitated only over the Halle Orchestra's involvement (regional orchestra par excellence, no?) and IMP, a label I was unfamiliar with. As it turned out, I needn't have been reluctant. The performance has all of the grandeur of the old stereo recording by the Philadelphia Orchestra (now available on Sony together with the Fourth) but more verve and spirit. It is far better recorded as well.Listening to the IMP CD again, I realize just how great a falling off in quality Shostakovich's post-Tenth symphonies represent. Of the twin peaks of the Russian composer's career, the Fifth Symphony has the same sort of architectural logic as the Tenth. Both represent Shostakovich's spin on the "fate" symphony. But while the Fifth recalls Beethoven's fate symphony (the Fifth), with its tragedy-to-triumph scenario, the Tenth overcomes grim reality through comedy, through good humor (though not without touches of irony), in the nature of Tchaikovsky's fate symphony (the Fourth). If Shostakovich's Fifth is the more emotionally appealing, the Tenth Symphony's appeal to the head places it, for many critics, at the apogee of Shosktakovich's symphonic career. I won't say them nay.Skrowaczewki and his orchestra are very much in command of both the emotional and intellectual aspects of this great symphony. Listening to it, you realize how very difficult it must be to sustain Shostakovich's over-twenty-minute-long first movement, but these performers make this length heavenly, to paraphrase Schumann's comment about the Schubert Ninth. The militant scherzo zips along; the slow movement has both pathos and, in the B section, great energy; and the finale crackles with dash and humor. And the engineers have very successfully captured the sound of an orchestra in a fair-sized hall. There is just enough resonance for a thrilling realism, and not a wit of impact is compromised. Listen to the perfectly captured percussion, especially the big, bright cymbals. Other recordings may offer more music per CD, but at this price IMP's entry in the Tenth Symphony sweepstakes is a winner."

Thrilling, Intense and Well-Recorded, At A Nice Price, Too!

Timothy Dougal | Madison, Wi United States | 02/06/2002

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I was more than pleasantly surprized when I heard this magisterial reading of Shostakovich's Tenth Symphony, and the other two recordings that I had soon made their way to the used CD store. The performance is quite vigorous and puts me in mind of Mravinsky's, but without all the coughing. At first I thought the string sound was a little "light" but I quickly adjusted to it. The sound overall is spacious, but quite detailed. All the small instrumental groupings come out nicely, and there are no annoying noises or musicianly huffing and puffing in evidence. One unexpected aspect of this recording is how much it makes me think that Shostakovich wrote his Tenth in response to Bartok's 'Concerto For Orchestra', so many affinities are there between the two works, (or at least between this recording and Solti's CSO 'Concerto' which I have and can't live without). Who knows? Anyway, this is a terrific CD."