Shostakovich: Symphonies Nos 5 & 9
Hong Kong Philharmonic/Jaap van Zweden
Naxos 8.574549 67:10 mins
The finale in this latest Shostakovich Five is a real tour de force: Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra’s principal conductor (since 2012) Jaap van Zweden starts at a hell-for-leather pace, keeping an eye on the ambiguous outcome, never really slackening even in meditative contrast. The climax of the great Adagio is hair-raising too, the piano clear in the ferocious tremolos, and the woodwind solos before that sound appropriately desolate. There’s more of an emotional distance in the first two movements, maybe compounded by the reverberant acoustic.
That doesn’t serve the Ninth Symphony’s deceptive neoclassical start too well, but Van Zweden’s take is unmistakeable: this is a major masterpiece in miniature form, driven in the faster sections, making sure the second movement feels like much more than an intermezzo. The unusual, almost saxophonal bassoon has already made a mark in the Fifth, and there’s another star turn from the trumpeter who emulates the Soviet sound of the old Melodiya days. The same team gave us more Shostakovich earlier on Naxos in an unusual context, the Tenth Symphony twinned with the two fully scored movements from Mahler’s swansong of the same number. The unconventional aspects here make these interpretations worth investigating at any price, but the bargain status makes them all the more attractive. David Nice
