COMPOSERS: Shostakovich
LABELS: LSO Live
ALBUM TITLE: Shostakovich Symphony No. 5
WORKS: Symphony No. 5
PERFORMER: LSOMstislav Rostropovich
CATALOGUE NO: LSO 0550
Set the volume high before you
listen to this Shostakovich Fifth:
the clenched-fist strings at the start
will do you no harm and otherwise
you’ll strain to catch the wan, distant
melody from the first violins shortly
afterwards. This is the sort of thing
at which Rostropovich excels; the
frozen wastes, the seas of desolation
which cover tracts of this carefully
proportioned symphony have never
been more atmospherically charted.
It’s a pity, then, that the live
Barbican recording doesn’t stand
further back to let perspectives tell.
And while the volatile extremes of
Rostropovich’s massive conducting
style would no doubt have been
compelling at the concerts from which
this disc was assembled, it can be a
bumpy ride in the colder light of CD.
For that reason, Rostropovich seems
to take longer in the slow movement
than either Gergiev (Philips) or
Jansons (EMI); in fact he’s a good
few minutes faster. The finale, on
the other hand, both feels and is
purposefully elephantine; the timpani
blows rain down heavily at the end,
in marked contrast to Jansons’s
spectacular, fast-burning conflagration
or Gergiev’s more neutral resolution.
There’s room for this interpretation,
despite the above reservations; at
the price, it’s well worth adding to
the line-up, and you can’t complain
if it stands alone (Jansons adds the
string-orchestra arrangement of the
Eighth Quartet, Gergiev the equivocal
Ninth Symphony). No doubt about
it, though: the real apocalypse is yet
to come when LSO Live releases
Rostropovich’s recent devastating
performance of the colossal Eighth
Symphony. David Nice