Search - Yevgeny Mravinsky :: Edition 2

A Pleasant Weekend's Listening

Misha | Staten Island, NY | 02/05/2001

(4 out of 5 stars)

"About a year ago, I bought the first 10 CD set of Mravinsky's masterworks, and was struck by two things - the ferocity with which he was able to get his musicians to play, and the lack of preparation that I felt should have been paid when selecting the choicest bits for this sort of ambitious undertaking. However, the recordings we are offered were, technically speaking, not the best (in spite of the advances of digital recording technology in the past 20 years, a time span these mixes had been recorded in).Enough about the first ten - the second edition (vols. 11 through 20) are truly an exception. I couldn't pass up the price that these were being offered at, and have only had the opportunity to give them a cursory listen. Nonetheless, the audio quality on this edition is leaps and bounds beyond its father. Mind you, you'll still be unsettled by fits of coughing and the occasional sniffle here and there, but the distortions and fuzz in the background are gone. Blissfully, too, because you don't want anything to distract you from an exceptional set of recordings.Most of what you'll hear are the familiar phrases that we've come to know all too well (Beethoven's 5th, for example). This in itself is a bold move; we are being offered the chance to stack it against some of the best recordings thereof, albeit (perhaps) from memory. However, both Ludwig's 5th and 7th hold their own against the best you can find on Deutsche Grammaphone.The unfamilar is also offered; Rimsky-Korsakov's precarious "Legend of the Invisible City of Kitezh and the Maiden Fevroniya" is a delightfully dark (at times) splash of music best enjoyed with a glass of port in a comfortable chair. Ovsianiko-Kulikovskii's 21st symphony (no, I don't know if I've ever heard symphonies 1-20 before it, either) is also particularly enjoyable. Brahms and Bruckner round out the selection, but Mravinsky and the Leningrad Philharmonic are at their absolute best when they approach the Tchaikovsky sets. "Pathetique" and "Leningrad" are, while not his most famous, among my favorites, and they are sympathetically conducted and remarkably played.Purchasing this set will allow you many, many hours of tremendous satisfaction. Don't look back at the first set; look forward to the hopes that Melodiya will put out more, with the quality of both selections and recordings becoming better and better."

Contains a wonderful performance of Bruckner's eighth

Issei Takechi | Saitama, Japan | 11/30/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Well, I am not rich enough to own the whole set, so I will just refer to Bruckner's eighth symphony. Bruckner's seventh and ninth symphonies regularly featured in Mravinsky's concerts but the eight did less freaquently. However, what is on offer here is truly the one for the ages. Mravinsky leads a performance that is at once intense and lyrical and brings out the visceral power and sublime beauty in this magnificiant score. He clocks in just over 73 minutes, knocking some thirty minuets (!)off Celibidache's monstrous Munich account (EMI), despite his use of the Hass edition. How he pulls that off is anyone's guess because hearing it through one does not feel that it is all that fast. The intensely beautiful Adagio is particularly memorable. Recorded in mono in 1959, the sonics are a bit harsh at times but generally clear and perfectly acceptable."