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> Shostakovich: Symphonies No 6 & 12 /Haitink |
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Average Customer Rating:  
List Price: $11.98
Our Price: $19.99
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Binding: Audio CD
EAN: 0028942506725
Format: Original recording reissued, Import
Label: Decca Import
Manufacturer: Decca Import
Number Of Discs: 1
Publisher: Decca Import
Release Date: 2000-07-18
Studio: Decca Import |
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Disc 1:
| 1. Symphony No. 6 in B minor, Op. 54: Largo | | 2. Symphony No. 6 in B minor, Op. 54: Allegro | | 3. Symphony No. 6 in B minor, Op. 54: Presto | | 4. Symphony No. 12 in D minor, Op. 112 (The Year 1917 - in Memory of Lenin): No. 1, 'Revolutionary Petrograd' | | 5. Symphony No. 12 in D minor, Op. 112 (The Year 1917 - in Memory of Lenin): No. 2, 'Razliv' | | 6. Symphony No. 12 in D minor, Op. 112 (The Year 1917 - in Memory of Lenin): No. 3, 'Aurora' | | 7. Symphony No. 12 in D minor, Op. 112 (The Year 1917 - in Memory of Lenin): No. 4, 'The Dawn of Humanity' |
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 An overly careful Sixth and a good stab at the impossible Twelfth, 2006-07-20
I don't know whehter to admire so many Amazon reviewers for being good Samaritans about the much-maligned Shostakovich Twelfth, or to wonder if they were paid off by the last surviving Communist cell in America. The work is hollow, bombastic, false, and aimless. Critics are a fickle breed, but every single one can't be wrong.
I love the Sixth Sym., however, and cannot get out my head the tragic reading of the first movement as delivered by Mravinsky. Haitink is relatively careful in this great arch of a Largo, finding its intensity only at odd moments. He treads too nimbly in the Scherzo, which needs more edge and bite. The finale is splendidly played by the Concergebouw winds in particular, and although Haitink's tempo isn't the swirling Presto that the composer asks for, even with a bit of a lumber in its gait the movement is a success.
As to the details of the Twelfth, the reviewer who declares this to be the first great performance has overlooked the searing, intense Mravinsky version that has long set the standard. But Decca's sonics are much better, and the Concertgebouw plays with more smoothness and richness than the Leningrad Phil. To his credit, Haiitnk's performance is serious and committed. I doubt that perspectives will ever change toward this work--it seems like empty loyal-Soviet-artist posturing from beginning to end.
Of course, to convincingly glorify Lenin and the Bolshevik Revolution at this late date would take the reincarnation of Beethoven. The fact that we must endure this banality for almost 45 min. makes dentistry seem like a lark in spring.
Overlooked masterpieces (or pretty close, anyway), 2005-05-22
This is probably my favorite recording in Haitnik's Shostakovich cycle. While these are not Shostakovich's "best" symphonies, they are still first-rate works that demonstrate Shostakovich's fervent commitment to musical and emotional truth, even in what some might consider the propagandistic 12th symphony. The recording is amazing and Haitnik's interpretation is the best in my book for both works. I couldn't imagine anyone else making anything of the 12th symphony, and his 6th is more poised and confident than anyone else's performance (though adimittedly, I haven't heard every recorded performance--but most).
My favorite is clearly the magnificent 6th symphony, a work that betrays some fondness for Prokofiev's symphonic idiom without being at all derivative. The dark, expansive opening movement is one of Shostakovich's greatest symphonic frescoes: a haunting melody arches overhead with an almost Sibelian sweep, though its emotional intensity is more akin to Mahler or even Tchaikovsky. What better way to conclude the symphony than with two irreverent, diabolic scherzos, very similar to the scherzo of Prokofiev's 5th symphony, but less four-square. In short, it's a masterpiece of 20th century symphonic writing, resisting every cliche and convention of the period, yet still capturing his moment in time and his unique musical thumbprint.
The 12th is less a symphony than a suite from one of his memorable and dramatic movie scores. Not quite on the level of Hamlet or King Lear, but somewhere between those works and Five Days, Five Nights. The opening movement is trademark Shostakovich, with rushing strings and piercing woodwings. A slow, contemplative movement follows (deeper than his critics would suggest), followed by a vicious "scherzo" full of orchestral artillery. And while the finale can sound a bit ridiculous in other hands, here it sounds, if not quite triumphant, then at least a fitting conclusion to a tuneful, propulsive work. While the 11th symphony captures the sense of a national epic more convincingly, the 12th is a lot of fun--and no less cogently argued.
I can recommend every release in Haitnik's series, but this one could be easily overlooked. Don't make that mistake. Or do, but don't say I didn't warn you.
Great Music, Great Bargain, 2009-01-05
Shostakovich is the most recent, last great symphonic composer, after Mahler, and his body of work represents a cycle as great and profound as those of Beethoven, Bruckner and Mahler. There are only a handful of sets of his complete symphonies, and this is one of the very best. Haitink is a fine conductor working with two excellent orchestras, and his understanding of the music, the execution and especially the power really grows through the cycle.
Shostakovich wrote some minor, politically 'motivated' symphonies, and these are as capably done as anyone. His landmark works, and they are great, are the 1st, 4th, 5th, 8th - 10th, 11th and 13th - 15th. These last three, under Haitink, are as good as you will hear. While his 1st and 4th are not more than solid, the other great works are exceptionably conveyed here. Absolutely four stars for the music, and at this current astonishing download price of $11.98, easily a fifth for unbeatable value. I already have the boxed set, and I'm tempted to download them again anyway!
Great value for the entire cycle, 2009-01-05
I just want to add that although amazon gives reviews for the 6th and 12th symphonies, this is actually all the symphonies (1rst - 14th), plus two song cycles. 11 Cd's for the price of one is certainly fair.
Finally a Superb Performance of the Neglected 12th, 2005-08-20
Shostakovich's Symphony No. 12 in D Minor, Op. 112 (The Year 1917 - in Memory of Lenin) has not favored well with critics and apparently with music directors. It is rare to hear a performance at all, much less a fine one, which leads the unknowing public to believe the pundits who descry this work as 'movie music' and contradictory to Shostakovich's later professed repugnance with the Communist state: how could that composer have written a work honoring the Revolution of 1917?
Time changes perspectives and while the 12th Symphony is not the through-composed great work of his other symphonies, it still remains an important and very beautiful work. Written in four continuous movements, each movement represents stages in the Revolution: 1) Revolutionary Petrograd, 2) Razliv (Lenin's hideout north of St Petersburg), 3) Aurora (the ship that fired on the Winter Palace, reportedly the inception of the Revolution, and 4) The Dawn of Humanity. The scoring is clear and straightforward and the symphony is actually one of the more accessible of Shostakovich's 15 symphonies.
Bernard Haitink and the Concertgebouw Orchestra of Amsterdam give a powerful and honest and committed performance, one that will hopefully encourage further performances of this neglected work. Coupled with the 12th is a stunning performance of Shostakovich's much played and much loved 6th Symphony. Haitink brings great dignity and sonorous playing from the Concertgebouw and indeed this is one of the strongest recordings available of this symphony also. While many still regard Rostropovich's recordings of these works with the London Symphony Orchestra as the definitive ones, those performances are now available only in the boxed set of all of the Shostakovich symphonies. That is superb collection, but for those interested in acquainting with the 12th, this recording is a fine alternative. Grady Harp, August 05
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