Shostakovich: Symphony No. 7
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Music CD Cover
Composer: Dmitry ShostakovichConductor: Valery Gergiev
Orchestra: St. Petersburhg Kirov Chorus and Orchestra
Orchestra: St.Petersburg Kirov Orchestra
Orchestra: Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra
Edition: Music CD
CD Release Date: 2003-05-13
Music Label: Philips
Soundtracks:
- I Allegretto
- II Moderato (Poco Allegretto)
- III Adagio
- IV Allegro Non Troppo
Free Music Notes for Shostakovich: Symphony No. 7
Free Music Review: A committed reading in muddy sound
Hit: 4 Stars
The only reviewer to rate this CD of the Shostakovich Seventh below five stars comments on the low-level, muddy sonics, and he's right. I played the new Gergive recording side by side with Bernstein's famous account on Sony with the nY PHil. from 1962, and the older recording has far more impact, clarity, and detial. Perhaps th Philips engineers were constrained by the double orchestra (the Kirov and Rotterdam Phil.) that Gergiev emplys; whatever the reason, the microphone placement is fairly distant.
At its 1941-42 premieres around the world Shostakovich's Seventh was hailed as a testament "against the forces of darkness" (i.e., Nazis), but its signature "invasion march" in the first movement was not conceived to be specificaly about the events of the German invaison of Leningrad in 1941, and leaving that bombastic portion aside, nonoe of the other music in this massive work is programmatic. The overall tone is mostly elegaic and often melancholy until the brash and rather exhausting trimphalism of the ending. The typical listener, once past the blockbuster march (a kind of anti-Fascist 'Bolero'), loses interest in the diffuse three movements that follow.
Gergive is very good at the lyrical, inward parts, but he doesn't skimp on the crash-bang of the march -- I imagine that was his chief rationale for using two orchestras. The first performance in Leningrad, soon after the siege was lfited, invited any spare musicians in the city to come and join in. This live 2001 performance has some of that "People's Symphony" feeling. I think there are a few flaws here, though. Gergive's slow tempo in the last two movements drains the music of coherence, and one is aware of many lax moments when it's hard to pay attention.
I won't engage in the time-honored debate over whether the Shostakovich Seventh is banal claptrap -- the rep it had for forty years after its wartime fame -- or a resurrected masterpiece. It seems to me that the latter opinion is far from univresal, but with time the music seems less banal than it once did, in large part because exceptional musicians like Bernstein, Gergiev, and Temirkanov have found a way to imbue it with their own eloquence.
Shostakovich: Symphony No. 7 Poster
Shostakovich's "Leningrad" Symphony has been surrounded by controversy ever since it was written; it even ignited a battle between two great conductors, Toscanini and Stokowski, for the first American performance (Toscanini won). Composed in 1941 during the siege of Leningrad in homage to the Russian people's heroic resistance against the German invaders, it has been condemned by some as political propaganda, hailed by others as a symphonic masterpiece. Time and audiences everywhere have decided in favor of the latter view; today, the "Leningrad" is one of Shostakovich's best known, most popular symphonies. Though its programmatic content is clear, the emotional impact of the music itself invites listeners to imagine their own scenario. Gergiev has this music in his bloodstream and knows how to inspire an orchestra (two in this case); exploiting every instrumental resource, he elicits both massive and delicate playing, achieving powerful build-ups and tremendous climaxes. The result is a taut, concentrated performance that makes the symphony--Shostakovich's longest--seem shorter than usual; its no-holds-barred approach plumbs the depths and scales the heights of human experience, from bleak, grotesque irony to heart-breaking, anguished lamentation and ultimate triumph. The famous first movement march--a simple, deliberately trite little tune over a persistent snare drum figure--starts almost inaudibly; its eleven always different repetitions generate enormous suspense, and when the cumulative orchestration reaches its peak, you feel as if an entire army had marched over you. The recording's only flaw is its excessive dynamic contrast, so keep a finger on the volume control. --Edith EislerClassical Music CDs
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