Search - Shostakovich, Ashkenazy, Rpo :: Shostakovich: Symphony No. 5; Fragments for Small Orchestra

Strong

David Saemann | 12/23/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This is absolutely the best Shostakovich 5th I ever have heard. I wound up listening to it three times in the first two days I had it. As Ashkenazy has demonstrated in his other Shostakovich recordings, he has a subtle understanding of the expression of the composer's psychology. There are places in the score where the conductor's sense of what the composer wants is so intimate that you can't believe someone other than the composer is conducting. The first movement features marvelously hushed playing from the strings. This was Ashkenazy's first recording with the Royal Philharmonic upon following Andre Previn as its music director, and the orchestra sounds in better shape here than it did later in his tenure. The string sound throughout the work is clear and clean, without the sort of oomph such orchestras as the New York and Philadelphia have given the piece. The last movement proceeds at a measured pace, and the sense of emotional defeat while producing a loud, fast climax is overwhelming. The 5 Fragments is a highly interesting work, contemporaneous with the 4th Symphony. It makes one wonder if Shostakovich knew the works of the Second Viennese School at this date. Throughout the CD, the sound engineering is ingratiatingly realistic, some of the best I've ever heard. I know there are more famous recordings of the 5th Symphony--my first LP was the 1959 Bernstein--but this one really takes the cake."

A flaccid reading that barely rises to the ordinary

Santa Fe Listener | Santa Fe, NM USA | 06/12/2010

(2 out of 5 stars)

"An earlier reviewer notes that the opening of the Shostakovich Fifth under Ashkenazy has more menace than any other recording he knows (he lists almost a dozen rivals, including a few of the acknowledged greats), to which I can only give a despairing shrug. It would be hard to imagine a limper, less menacing opening than the piffle Ashkenazy produces. He goes on to whisper his way through the rest of the movement, moving on to a flat, galumphing Scherzo, a harmless, lyrical Largo that is all but meaningless, and ends up with a finale where the only energy in tis entire performance rears its head. This is conducting of such amateurishness that I am open-mouthed at the way Ashkenazy continues to garner respectful, even enthusiastic reviews in the Gramophone. (Is it out of tribute to his early, brave defection from the Soviet Union into the arms of the British?) The imaginative addition of Shostakovich's Five Fragments, which are real rarities, can't save this CD. Bashing it seems like breaking a butterfly on a wheel, but it really is exasperatingly bad."