Shostakovich: Symphony No. 11: The Year 1905

Shostakovich: Symphony No. 11: The Year 1905

Shostakovich: Symphony No. 11: The Year 1905
List Price: $12.98
Our Price: $6.38
You Save: $6.60 (51%)
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Buy Used: from $3.08 (click here)
Category: Music CD
See more CD details
Listen soundtracks from this album


(Click here)
Buy this Music CD at online store in your country
Canadian Music Store

CD Details

Composer: Shostakovich
Conductor: Rostropovich
Orchestra: London Symphony Orchestra
Edition: Music CD
Format: Import
CD Release Date: 2002-09-10
Music Label: Lso Live UK

Music reviews of Shostakovich: Symphony No. 11: The Year 1905

Music Review: A Stunning Version in Dynamic Sound
Rating: 5 Stars

Thanks to John Kwok for an eloquent defense of this "slow" reading of a masterpiece. It's indeed an inspired interpretation, though I'd be willing to bet donuts to dimes that when he called this--Rostropovich's live LSO remake--"without question . . . definitive," he hadn't heard Valéry Polyansky's version, recorded for Chandos with the Russian State Symphony Orchestra and released in 1996, six years before. In terms of overall concept and timing these renditions are strikingly close (Polyansky runs about a minute-and-a-half longer), so if you like one you're bound to like the other. That said, here are some of the reasons I prefer Polyansky.

His opening chords carry just a shade more menace, and his silent pauses between phrases seem ever-so-slightly better timed--more natural, if that's the word I want.

In the second movement, at the moment when the soldiers descend on the people, both conductors get the tempo right (a real rarity), but somehow I hear more cold-blooded calculation in the way Polyansky holds back the march: these are highly disciplined soldiers staying in their ranks and carrying out their attack on orders from above. (This carries a very different political message from the way most conductors play this scene, as if the troops were a bunch of hooligans running amok and giving chase. I daresay the first message is more pointed and the one Shostakovich intended.)

In the third movement adagio, "In Memorium," Polyansky simply finds more grief than Rostropovich does. He lingers nearly three minutes longer. It's almost as if the notes are being picked up from the bloody Palace Square in clusters of two and three by the mourners.

And finally, in the fourth movement, "The Tocsin," I like Polyansky's build-up to the climax just a little bit more. When the ending comes, it's spine-tingling. The wild ringing bells at the symphony's close are a repressed people's "Ode to Joy."

Both CDs feature demonstration-quality sound, with an almost frightening dynamic range. I detect a bit more detail in the Chandos recording.

As an aside, I can't help but wonder if reviewers who malign this symphony as "film music" are trying to revive, in modern terms, the silly old debate about pure music versus programmatic music. Perhaps they've never listened closely to Max Steiner, Miklós Rózsa, Victor Young, Erich Wolfgang Korngold, Bernard Herrmann, Franz Waxman, Carl Stalling, Raymond Scott, Jean Constantin, Georges Delerue, Duke Ellington, Miles Davis, Nino Rota, Henry Mancini, André Previn, Leonard Bernstein, Lalo Schifrin, Ennio Morriconne, Carter Burwell . . . . Maybe they've forgotten all about ALEXANDER NEVSKY, IVAN THE TERRIBLE and LIEUTENANT KIJE. Great music has been written for every occasion--for practicing scales, for dining pleasure, for fireworks displays, for coronations, for funerals, for theatrical productions, for ballets, for . . . just about everything, including (of course) film--although this symphony was actually composed for the concert hall, not to accompany a movie.
More Shostakovich: Symphony No. 11: The Year 1905 free music reviews:
1 2 3 4 5

Description of Shostakovich: Symphony No. 11: The Year 1905

When Mstislav Rostropovich conducts Shostakovich's music, the results are never less than sensational. The two were close friends and Rostropovich has a unique understanding of the composer's works. The Eleventh Symphony takes a cinematic approach to recounting events surrounding the 1905 Russian revolution. But the intensity of Rostropovich's interpretation and his personal insight point towards Shostakovich's real intentions.
From the first dark pianissimos to the shattering climactic finale, this is a reading of rare involvement and commitment. At over 72 minutes, it's about 12 minutes longer than most versions of the work, but Rostropovich maintains a note-to-note tension that never lets up, preventing any sense of slackened pace. Subtitled "The Year 1905," the symphony depicts the slaughter of demonstrators by the czarist forces, an event that contributed to the revolution that later swept Russia. For all its powerful, bombastic passages, the overwhelming impression, in Rostropovich's interpretation, is of a work permeated with brooding menace, summoning both what happened and the horrors to come. The LSO is outstanding, conjuring the typically resonant sound of a Russian orchestra, and playing with an electric tension that must have been overwhelming in the concert hall. That emotional power comes through forcefully on disc, though the engineers barely manage to contain the huge dynamic range that can make quiet moments border on the inaudible and loud ones shake the roof. A stunning accomplishment. --Dan Davis

Classical CDs
Music Genres
Bestsellers in Classical CDs
Winterscapes ImageWinterscapes
by London Philharmonic
Prophetic Voice; Published: 2000-07; Audio CD; Book
Best price: $2.75
Price in other shops: $6.99
The Queen, the Bear, & the Bumblebee ImageThe Queen, the Bear, & the Bumblebee
by Dini Petty
Children's Group; Published: 2001-03; Audio CD; Book
Best price: $13.38
Price in other shops: $13.98
Beethoven Lives Upstairs Cdr ImageClassical Kids - Beethoven Lives Upstairs Cdr
Release date: 2000-04-05; Music CD
Best price: $24.98
Tchaikovsky (Life and Works (Naxos)) ImageTchaikovsky (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] ImageJose 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: $9.99
Tchaikovsky - The Nutcracker / Nureyev, Park, Royal Ballet [VHS] ImageTchaikovsky - 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: $29.95
Lonely Town Lonley Street / Sergeant's Early Dream [VHS] ImageRambert 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: $29.95
Winter Music: Composing the North ImageWinter Music: Composing the North
by John Luther Adams
Wesleyan; Published: 2004-11-10; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $21.88
Price in other shops: $25.95
Puccini - La Fanciulla del West / Santi, Domingo, Neblett, Royal Opera Covent Garden [VHS] ImagePuccini - 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: $29.95
Verdi - Falstaff / Giulini, Bruson, Ricciarelli, Nucci, Royal Opera Covent Garden [VHS] ImageVerdi - 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: $29.95
Similar CDs
Rachmaninov: The Symphonies ImageRachmaninov: The Symphonies
Release date: 1998-02-10; Music CD
Best price: $14.39
Price in other shops: $23.98
Shostakovich: Symphonies Nos. 6, & 12 - The Year 1917 ImageShostakovich: Symphonies Nos. 6, & 12 - The Year 1917
Release date: 2011-10-25; Music CD
Best price: $5.38
Price in other shops: $9.99
Shostakovich: Piano Music; Chamber Works [Box Set] ImageShostakovich: Piano Music; Chamber Works [Box Set]
Release date: 2006-06-13; Music CD
Best price: $20.62
Price in other shops: $39.98
Bruckner: 9 Symphonies [Box Set] ImageBruckner: 9 Symphonies [Box Set]
Release date: 2008-11-18; Music CD
Best price: $22.29
Price in other shops: $32.98
Shostakovich: Symphonies Nos. 5 and 9 ImageShostakovich: Symphonies Nos. 5 and 9
HAITINK,B/LONDON PH; Release date: 2000-07-18; Music CD
Best price: $6.88
Price in other shops: $11.98
Shostakovich: Symphony No. 11- The Year 1905 ImageShostakovich: Symphony No. 11- The Year 1905
Release date: 2009-03-31; Music CD
Best price: $4.70
Price in other shops: $8.99
Shostakovich: Symphony No. 10 ImageShostakovich: Symphony No. 10
Release date: 2010-11-16; Music CD
Best price: $5.60
Price in other shops: $9.99
Shostakovich: Symphony No. 7 ImageShostakovich: Symphony No. 7
Release date: 2000-08-08; Music CD
Best price: $6.45
Price in other shops: $11.98
Shostakovich: Symphony No. 10 ImageShostakovich: Symphony No. 10
Release date: 2006-02-01; Music CD
Best price: $5.99
Price in other shops: $9.98
Shostakovich: Symphony No. 8 ImageShostakovich: Symphony No. 8
Release date: 2005-07-12; Music CD
Best price: $4.99
Price in other shops: $12.98
Books | DVD Video | VHS Video | Health and Personal Care | Digital Cameras and Photo | Kitchen and Housewares | Tools and Hardware | Sports Equipment | Dresses shirts shoes apparel pants
Copyright © 2004-2007 music-hills.com
Google
 
Web music-hills.com
Compare prices and find music notes for more than one million Music CD titles