Shostakovich: Symphony No. 13

Shostakovich: Symphony No. 13

Shostakovich: Symphony No. 13
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Performer: Sergey Aleksashkin
Composer: Dmitry Shostakovich
Conductor: Mariss Jansons
Orchestra: Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra
Orchestra: Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks
Edition: Music CD
CD Release Date: 2005-08-02
Music Label: EMI Classics
Soundtracks:
  1. Babi Yar: Adagio
  2. Humor: Allegretto
  3. In The Store: Adagio
  4. Fears: Adagio
  5. A Career: Allegretto

Free Music Notes for Shostakovich: Symphony No. 13

Free Music Review: Without Question the most Profound Performance of Babi Yar on Records!
Hit: 5 Stars

Though there are many excellent recordings of the Shostakovich Symphony No. 13 'Babi Yar' available, this new recording by Mariss Jansons is the crowning achievement. Jansons is nearing completion of the entire Shostakovich cycle and this installment is by far the finest in a fine set. Though some may find this symphony episodic (it has been compared to Mahler's 'Das Lied von der Erde' as a symphonic song cycle1), Jansons makes the work intelligently cohesive. He finds the essence of each of the five movements and weaves the similarities of orchestration and poetry tightly. His vision is at one with Shostakovich and Yevtushenko.

The Bavarian Radio Symphony (Jansons is the Music Director of this orchestra) plays with complete command of the obstacles. The first desk playing is top notch and the 'sound' is as Russian as is needed for the success of the work. Jansons wisely selected Russian opera star Sergei Aleksashkin as soloist: his vocal quality is rich and dark and completely right for these Yevtushenko poems. His range of emotion is stunning. And completing the overall sound is the very fine Men's chorus from the Bavarian Radio Chorus. The Sonics are superb.

Hands down this is the recording of choice for this extraordinary symphony. It should receive the Grammy for Orchestral Recording! Very Highly Recommended. Grady Harp, January 06

Shostakovich: Symphony No. 13 Poster

"There is no monument above Babi Yar," Yevgeny Yevtushenko laments in his poem about the Ukrainian ravine where the Germans shot thousands of Jews in 1941. Twenty years later, he and Shostakovich created a memorial more lasting and searing than any marble headstone. Yevtushenko's poems express fiery political protest and youthful idealism and, as in other "choral" symphonies, the words and voices add immeasurably to the emotional impact of the music. Scored for solo bass, male chorus (singing in unison) and a large orchestra, each of the symphony's five movements is set to a poem depicting an aspect of life under Stalin; the music complements and heightens the poetry's atmosphere, mood, and narrative intensity. "Humor" and "A Career" are vintage Shostakovich Scherzos: sardonic, grotesque, with robust, almost vulgar irregular dance rhythms and a sophisticated fugal section - the gallows-humor of despair. "In the Store" is a lament-laden hymn to the hardships of Russian women; "Fears" is a spooky, ominous, frightening description of the pall of dread hanging over everyone. The longest, most wrenching movement, of course, is "Babi Yar." Dark, mournful, often wild, it is an outcry of the helpless down-trodden against the inhumanity of the powerful, but the poet's attempt to identify with the suffering Jewish victims by being a "true Russian" is not entirely convincing. The symphony represents the composer at the height of his technical and expressive power. Solo and choral passages alternate, the orchestration is stunning, full of dynamic and timbral variety and contrast. The performance is splendid; the German orchestra and chorus sound as authentic and involved as the Russian soloist and conductor. --Edith Eisler

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