Shostakovich: Symphony No. 8 ~ Berglund
List Price:
Our Price: $5.71
You Save: $14.28 (71%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Category: Music CD
See more CD details
Buy this Music CD at online store in your country
Canadian Music Store
Canadian Music Store
CD Details
Composer: Dmitry ShostakovichConductor: Paavo Berglund
Orchestra: Russian National Orchestra
Edition: Music CD
Format: Hybrid SACD - DSD
CD Release Date: 2006-06-20
Music Label: Pentatone
Soundtracks:
- Symphony No. 8 in C minor, Op. 65 (Stalingrad): Adagio
- Symphony No. 8 in C minor, Op. 65 (Stalingrad): Allegretto
- Symphony No. 8 in C minor, Op. 65 (Stalingrad): Allegro non troppo
- Symphony No. 8 in C minor, Op. 65 (Stalingrad): Largo
- Symphony No. 8 in C minor, Op. 65 (Stalingrad): Allegretto
Music reviews of Shostakovich: Symphony No. 8 ~ Berglund
Music Review: One of Shostakovich's Masterpieces in Brilliant Sound
Rating: 5 Stars
The Eighth Symphony doesn't get as many performances as its towering worth might suggest. Partly, I suppose, that is because it is one of Shostakovich's knottiest works. Written in 1943 and described by the composer for the benefit of his Stalinist masters as 'my thoughts and feelings following the joyous reports on the first victories of the Red Army,' it is in fact a doleful and sarcastic hour-and-a-quarter cry of pain. Paavo Berlund, a noted Shostakovian, emphasizes the dolorous aspects of the symphony, taking, for instance, the first movement slowly and trudgingly; it lasts almost half an hour in itself and one is wrung out by its intensity. The second movement, Allegretto, has a kind of whistling in the graveyard tone, with Shostakovich's patented shrieking piccolos keeping up a brave front. In the third movement, Allegro non troppo, this mood is maintained in a kind of moto perpetuo, again with those shrieking woodwinds crying out almost as if to say 'Stop! Stop!' which of course doesn't happen. One hears percussion interjections that could be interpreted as a firing squad. (Is my imagination running away with me here? I don't think so.) The fourth movement, Largo, slower but mercifully shorter than the first, is a powerful passacaglia -- surely Shostakovich put some of his most tragic and painful music in the form of the passacaglia, cf. the First Violin Concerto -- which leads directly into the finale whose tone is mainly one of resignation and a kind of hard-won and occasionally uneasy serenity that quietly dies away at the movement's (and symphony's) end. Is this Shostakovich caving in to the demands of the apparatchiks, or does it represent a true recognition and reluctant acceptance of the horror of the war-time situation? Surely the latter. In later times, Shostakovich referred to his Seventh and Eighth Symphonies as 'my requiem.'
It is not surprising that only a few years after its premiere the symphony was banned by the Stalinist government. It seems they finally caught on that the music in its own way was criticizing the regime.
This is the second SACD recording of the Eighth. The first, part of a complete traversal by Dmitri Kitajenko and the Gürzenich Orchestra of Cologne, I have not heard. But this effort by Berglund and the excellent Russian National Orchestra, recorded in Moscow in June 2005, would be hard to beat as regards both recorded sound and the performance itself. It is true that other non-SACD recordings have won plaudits -- those by Previn and Ashkenazy come to mind -- but this performance is the most wrenching I've heard. As the excellent booklet note writer Franz Steiger remarks, 'The Symphony No. 8 often exceeds the pain level of the listener.' Be warned, then, that this is not easy music but it is necessary music.
Scott Morrison
More Shostakovich: Symphony No. 8 ~ Berglund free music reviews:
1
1
Classical CDs
Music Genres
Bestsellers in Classical CDs
Winterscapesby London Philharmonic
Prophetic Voice; Published: 2000-07; Audio CD; Book
Best price: $2.75
Price in other shops:
The Queen, the Bear, & the Bumblebeeby Dini Petty
Children's Group; Published: 2001-03; Audio CD; Book
Best price: $13.38
Price in other shops:
Classical Kids - Beethoven Lives Upstairs CdrRelease date: 2000-04-05; Music CD
Best price: $24.98
Tchaikovsky (Life and Works (Naxos))by Malcolm Sinclair, Jeremy Siepmann
Naxos; Published: 2003-11; Audio CD; Book
Best price: $35.99
![Jose Carreras - Jubileum Concert [VHS] Image](/images/Jose-Carreras-Jubileum-Concert-VHS-1584481471-X.jpg){kind=small}
Jose Carreras - Jose Carreras - Jubileum Concert [VHS]Sling Shot; Release date: 2000-04-18; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Best price: $5.86
Price in other shops:
![Tchaikovsky - The Nutcracker / Nureyev, Park, Royal Ballet [VHS] Image](/images/Tchaikovsky-The-Nutcracker-Nureyev-Park-Royal-Ballet-VHS-156127092X-X.jpg){kind=small}
Tchaikovsky - The Nutcracker / Nureyev, Park, Royal Ballet [VHS]Kultur Video; Release date: 1997-09-09; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Best price: $29.89
Price in other shops:
![Lonely Town Lonley Street / Sergeant's Early Dream [VHS] Image](/images/Lonely-Town-Lonley-Street-Sergeant-Early-Dream-VHS-1561270857-X.jpg){kind=small}
Rambert Dance Company - Lonely Town Lonley Street / Sergeant's Early Dream [VHS]Kultur Video; Release date: 1997-10-28; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Best price: $14.99
Price in other shops:
Winter Music: Composing the Northby John Luther Adams
Wesleyan; Published: 2004-11-10; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $25.21
Price in other shops:
![Puccini - La Fanciulla del West / Santi, Domingo, Neblett, Royal Opera Covent Garden [VHS] Image](/images/Puccini-La-Fanciulla-del-West-Santi-Domingo-Neblett-Royal-Opera-Covent-Garden-VHS-0769720382-X.jpg){kind=small}
Puccini - La Fanciulla del West / Santi, Domingo, Neblett, Royal Opera Covent Garden [VHS]Kultur Video; Release date: 1999-05-25; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Best price: $6.38
Price in other shops:
![Verdi - Falstaff / Giulini, Bruson, Ricciarelli, Nucci, Royal Opera Covent Garden [VHS] Image](/images/Verdi-Falstaff-Giulini-Bruson-Ricciarelli-Nucci-Royal-Opera-Covent-Garden-VHS-0769720358-X.jpg){kind=small}
Verdi - Falstaff / Giulini, Bruson, Ricciarelli, Nucci, Royal Opera Covent Garden [VHS]Kultur Video; Release date: 1999-05-25; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Best price: $12.95
Price in other shops:
Similar CDs
Schubert: Symphonies Nos. 8 & 9Release date: 2007-01-23; Music CD
Best price: $7.77
Price in other shops:
Shostakovich: Symphonies Nos. 3 & 10Release date: 2011-04-12; Music CD
Best price: $12.84
Price in other shops:
Schumann: Piano Concerto in A Minor / Beethoven: Emperor Concerto ~ CliburnRelease date: 2007-06-26; Music CD
Best price: $7.14
Price in other shops:
![Sibelius, Prokofiev, Glazunov: Violin Concertos [Hybrid SACD] Image](/images/Sibelius-Prokofiev-Glazunov-Violin-Concertos-Hybrid-SACD-B0006PV5U8-X.jpg)
Sibelius, Prokofiev, Glazunov: Violin Concertos [Hybrid SACD]Release date: 2005-01-25; Music CD
Best price: $7.02
Price in other shops:
King Crimson - Starless and Bible Black: 40th Anniversary SeriesRelease date: 2011-10-24; Music CD
Best price: $17.80
Price in other shops:
Schubert: Symphony No. 9 / Five German DancesRelease date: 2011-06-14; Music CD
Best price: $15.52
Price in other shops:
Mandelring Quartet - Shostakovich: Complete String Quartets, Vol. 1Release date: 2006-07-18; Music CD
Best price: $9.08
Price in other shops:
![Shostakovich: Symphonies Nos. 1 & 6 [Hybrid SACD] Image](/images/Shostakovich-Symphonies-Nos-1-6-Hybrid-SACD-B000EBEH4A-X.jpg)
Shostakovich: Symphonies Nos. 1 & 6 [Hybrid SACD]Release date: 2006-03-21; Music CD
Best price: $13.77
Price in other shops:
![Shostakovich: Symphony No. 11 [Hybrid SACD] Image](/images/Shostakovich-Symphony-No-11-Hybrid-SACD-B000E0VO4C-X.jpg)
Shostakovich: Symphony No. 11 [Hybrid SACD]Release date: 2006-02-21; Music CD
Best price: $5.72
Price in other shops:
![Shostakovich: Symphonies Nos. 5 & 9 [Hybrid SACD] Image](/images/Shostakovich-Symphonies-Nos-5-9-Hybrid-SACD-B000MRP1ZU-X.jpg)
Shostakovich: Symphonies Nos. 5 & 9 [Hybrid SACD]Release date: 2007-03-27; Music CD
Best price: $9.08
Price in other shops: