Most Helpful Customer Reviews
|
|
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Shostakovich with a Difference, 15 Nov 2005
First, I must say that the sound on this CD, recorded live in concert in 2004, is spectacular in both its SACD and plain vanilla formulations. Rich deep lows, precise highs, mid-range clear and present. Considering this was recorded in Royal Festival Hall on the South Bank, that's saying something. Someone has figured out how to get lifelike sound in that hall. And the London Philharmonic is in great form with its newish music director, Kurt Masur. As to the performances, they are different from any I've ever heard and at first I wasn't sure I liked what I was hearing, but repeated listenings have led me to revise my opinion upward. I still have some quibbles -- for instance, in the First Symphony, Masur seems to lose his conception of the form of the piece in the third and fourth movements, and things tend to meander. And I have rather mixed feelings about how he ends No. 5. The concluding several minutes of the fourth movement seem to be going for monumentality and majesty rather than brio and excitement. I was brought up on Bernstein's spine-tingling finale and that still seems the way to go -- and most other conductors seem to agree with that -- but one must commend Masur for having his own ideas on the matter. And you have to give him and the orchestra credit for bringing it off. The tempo of those last pages is slower than I've ever heard them and sometimes seems to be grinding to a halt. The timpani seem to be in the room with you, and those final timp strokes at the end literally rattled my windows. Wow! In the first movement of the Fifth there are some muddled inner voices that I would prefer to hear more clearly. In the first movement of the First Symphony there is a delicacy -- along with the sarcasm -- that is quite winning. Strangely this effect is absent in the two Lento introductions to III and IV. The Allegro molto of the First's Finale, though, regains the clarity and delicacy of the first movement and all ends well. And may I just gape in wonder at the mastery of the 18-year-old Shostakovich who wrote the symphony in order to gain entrance into the graduate program of the Leningrad Conservatoire? This CD has several things going for it: Masur's clearly personal ideas about the works, the fabulous playing of the LPO, the generally wonderful recorded sound. One could certainly do worse than have this recording. But I think I still prefer Haitink and Järvi in the First, and Bernstein and the old Stokowski in the Fifth. Scott Morrison
|
|
|
3.0 out of 5 stars
It's relatively good., 5 Mar 2008
I'm only commenting on the 5th Symphony as that's the Symphony I know best of the two.
This is a live recording, as demonstrated by the applause at the end of the symphony, and as such, is a warts and all recording - although when I say warts, I mean coughs etc. As a live performance, it seems relatively good. However, compared to the regular CD version I own, it is obviously flawed. The most notable flaw is the apparent inability of the orchestra/ conductor to keep time - some sections of the orchestra were clearly late at certain points and sometimes simply out of sync.
As for the tempo of the movements, the first three seem to be close to what I'm used to. (Oddly, I find that all recordings of the second movement seem to sound more or less the same.) As for the fourth movement, it goes pretty much similar as others except that the closing finale is rather slow. And I say slow not in comparison with the blistering tempo used by Bernstein, but with the averagely-brisk tempo of the recording I'm most familiar with. If you are unfamiliar with a slow finale, I suggest that you choose a different version, especially if you've been brought up on Bernstein. Otherwise, it's ok.
A note on the 5.1 arangement. I found it to be quite conservative considering that this, at times, is a very dynamic and dramatic symphony. Most of the music comes from the front L and R speakers. The rear speakers, it seems to me, have been incorporated as an afterthought; almost as if the recording engineer had nearly completed the mix in stereo before remembering that it is supposed to be in 5.1 and hastily diverted some music to the rear. Until I hear a better 5.1 mix of any SACD, I continue to say that Jeff Wayne's War of the Worlds hybrid SACD is the best that there is. The daring and dramatic mix is a fantastic match to Wayne's daring and dramatic music.
|
|
|
|
![Rachmaninov: The Isle of the Dead; Symphonic Dances [Hybrid SACD]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/31X6rhx0UaL._SL500_SS90_.jpg)
~ Willem Ceuleers
![Elgar: Symphony No. 2; In the South [Hybrid SACD]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51ASPFET5ZL._SL500_SS90_.jpg)
~ Edward Elgar
![La Vie En Rose [DVD] [2007]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51r1k%2BAw5HL._SL500_SS90_.jpg)
DVD ~ Marion Cotillard
~ London Philharmonic
With an Amazon.co.uk Gift Certificate, you can get them what they want (even if you don't know what that is). 
Make sure you always get what you want with an Amazon.co.uk 
Amazon Home