Shostakovich - Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk / Vishnevskaya, Gedda, Petrov, LPO, Rostropovich
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Free Music Notes for Shostakovich - Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk / Vishnevskaya, Gedda, Petrov, LPO, Rostropovich
Free Music Review: An unbelievable experience !
Hit: 5 Stars
I would pick on all the superlatives thrown in by the other reviewers, all 6 of whom have given it a 5-star rating, and say it is also of my experience. I have sat with this CD every evening for the past 6 days (since getting it) still unable to absorb the rapturous beauty of the music of this great recording, one of the best of my more-than-100 operas on disk and tape.
My contribution to the newcomer to this music would be to see a DVD of the opera - there is indeed a disk with the soprano Galina Vishnevskaya as Katerina, the principal character, so that the story doesnt intrude too much into the appreciation of the overarching score. To my mind the music soars above the voices of Russia below. There are so many mind-blowing climaxes and the musical remains at all times lyrical. Buy it without a second thought!
Free Music Review: REMASTERED VERSION NOW AVAILABLE
Hit: 5 Stars
EMI has remastered this enduring classic on its "Great Recordings of the Century" line, and it is available. Here's the ID number for finding it on Amazon, or just do a search for Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk:B000063UM3
Free Music Review: What an opera! What power!!
Hit: 5 Stars
As a relative newcomer to classical music I knew very little about Dmitri Shostakvich beyond his name, and even less about opera as such, when I learned about 'Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk' and determined that I had to have this recording of it, along with recordings of his Symphony No. 10 and his Symphony No. 5, at least. Of these I have von Karajan's and J?rvi's respectively. The former symphony was composed in the summer and fall of 1953, the year of Stalin's death, whose death on March 5, 1953, must have given Shostakovich much cause for celebration because symphony number 10 was and is said to contain a musical portrait of Stalin in the second movement. And, for all the world, this scherzo does appears to be that, really, especially since it is that violent and brutal, although the symphony concludes with considerable satisfaction and more happily because, in fact, Stalin, who had persecuted Shostakovich horribly, repeatedly, and prolongedly, for years, including as to this opera, was finally dead several months before Shostakovch began to compose this work. The latter, Symphony No. 5, was completed in 1937 and is a different matter entirely, in that it was called by a commentator "a Soviet artist's response to just criticism" (as to this opera) and concludes very differently. For anyone who still regards any of these works as "politically controversial", whatever that is supposed to mean, I personally have to add that, as I understand the foregoing remark AND Symphony No. 5, OF COURSE THE CRITICISM WASN'T JUST, COULD NOT POSSIBLY HAVE BEEN UNDERSTOOD TO BE JUST, NOR WAS IT REALLY ACCEPTED AS JUST BY THE COMPOSER (NOR SHOULD IT HAVE BEEN). By now, I have the Rostropovich recording of Symphony No. 8, too, which I also play regularly and often, on my CD player, which never fails me. All these recordings are available at this site and I recommend them along with this one of this opera. Others do better at dicussing it than I; I would just like to say that of course it's terrific. I am glad that this recording of this opera is available here, and that it has finally seen the light of day in this, its original form, so that we can all hear it. Highly recommended.Free Music Review: A Magisterial Performance of a Masterpiece!
Hit: 5 Stars
Without a doubt, this is one of the greatest opera recordings of the twentieth century! The opera itself, here restored to its original form -after metamorphosing into 'Katerina Izmailova', the original libretto (and score) hidden from the world for thirty years- is one of the masterful achievments of Shostakovich's life. Rostropovich has assured himself a high place in the pantheon of artists who have rendered incontestable service to mankind by this recording. Katerina's aria which opens the opera is a remarkable piece of theatre in and of itself, not to mention a perfect preamble of what is to come, and is radiantly sung by Vishnevskaya in full command of her extraordinary gifts, every nuance intact, her intimacy with the role apparent from the outset. The blood of this score is so entirely Russian, and so clearly purchased with that particular life-sacrificing art peculiar to the Russian humanist aesthetic, that its musical language reveals itself straightaway as an organic part of the glorious continuum of Russian art, one of the reasons of course that Stalin chose it to forge his hammer against everything truly Russian. The political history of this work of art, fascinating though it is, yet remains an ignoble and indeed unimportant footnote beside the lasting triumph of this particular opera. Nicolai Gedda here demonstrates why he is a legendary tenor- Sergey's grief, and what remains of his inner life are wrought like gold at every turn; it is a performance of towering artistry and unparalleled beauty. The London Symphony is shocking in its perfection, heated by Rostropovich's mystical gifts and pouring itself out like a Russian lover. Others more learned and capable than I have written far more lucidly than I could hope to in praise of this eternal work of art, yet I wish to call out the majesty of this masterpiece, encourage others to purchase it, make it their own, and thereby give homage to a genuinely rare human experience bequeathed to the world by Shostakovich, here restored to its preeminent place by the irreplaceable artists and collaborators who have understood what this work means to humankind, especially in an age of unbelief.Free Music Review: Right next to Pelleas and Wozzeck
Hit: 5 Stars
These three great operas form the pinnacle of acheivement on the musical stage in the 20th Century.In a word- this music is astonishing. The reocrding- amazing. The conducting- inspired. Probably it is Rostropovich's supreme accomplishment on record. Even the London Philharmonic Orchestra is full of life, vibrant, with horns blasting and strings digging into the music with the Mahler-like intesity found in their recordings with Tennstedt. Gedda moreover, displays the incredible range of his tenor voice- from gravely and bass (on par with Dmitri Petrov) to heady and youthful, his voice never flags, his conviction never in question.
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