From: kenneth@davy.uio.no (Kenneth Ruud)
Newsgroups: alt.fan.shostakovich
Subject: Re: Suggested conductor/symphony?
Date: 26 Dec 92 18:36:07 GMT
Organization: University of Oslo, Norway

In article <168C6F5E5.RUSHING@wsuvm1.csc.wsu.edu> RUSHING@wsuvm1.csc.wsu.edu writes:
>
>I'm musically illiterate when it comes to classical
>music, but I've recently become a big fan of DS after
>listening to him at a friend's house.  I don't
>know who is a good conductor / orchestra for DS.
>
>I have bought two symphonies.  One I like is a
>1982 Berliner Philharmoniker recording of
>the Tenth conducted by Herbert Von Karajan.
>I like it, but another friend of mine says it
>doesn't have the powere that a *good* recording
>does.
>
I agree with your friend, Herbert von Karajan is _not_ a good interpreter
of DSCH's music. (I've got a recording of the 5th symphony with Karajan as
conductor, and I hardly ever listen to it.) Try  a recording of the 10th with 
The London Philharmonic and Andrew Litton as a conductor. Available on CD 
from Virgin Classics, or, of course (IMO), a recording with Haitink as 
conductor.
>
>Another CD I have that I don't care for (although
>it is definitely not the music I don't care for
>just the production) is of the Eleventh by
>the USSR Ministry of Culture Symphony Orchestra
>conducted by Gennadi Rozhdestvensky and recorded
>in 1983.  I assumed that the Russians would do
>DS justice, but apparently not.
>
I've always seen those recordings, but never heard one, but I'm not too 
suprised about what you say. To me it seems as if though most Russians never
quite understood DSCH.
>
>Can anyone suggest conductors or orchestras (or
>specific recordings) of DS works?  I would be
>very appreciative.
>
In my opinion, the best DSCH interpreter is without doubt Haitink, and I think
he has recorded all DSCH's 15 symphonies, some with Concertgebouw orchestra
and some with The London Philharmonic.

Neme Jaervi and Andrew Litton(whom I mentioned earlier) have also made very
good interpretations of DSCH's music, but I'm not quite certain wether these
two has recorded all of DSCH's music.

To be somewhat patriotic, I would also like to recommend The Oslo 
Philharmonic Orchestra's recordings, with Mariss Janssons as a conductor, of 
some of DSCH's symphonies. I have to admit I haven't heard any of their 
recordings, but I went to a concert where they played the 6th symphony. 
Not even Haitink managed to keep up the nerve in the first movement nearly as 
well as Janssons did (the movement is a Large movement and lasts nearly 18 
minutes and constitutes almost 2/3 of the total playing time of the 
symphony). I was very impressed by their achivement with this symphony, so 
I think they deserve to be mentioned.

Two conductors you ought to avoid is definetely Von Karajan and Solti. Let's
not talk more about them....
>
>Tim Rushing (rushing@wsuvm1.csc.wsu.edu)
>
Kenneth, hoping everybody has had a wonderful Xmas and wishing everybody 
a Happy New Year!
--
_______________________________________________________________________________
Kenneth Ruud, doing Chemical Physics at the Department of Chemistry,
University of Oslo, Norway.         E-mail: kenneth@dalton.uio.no

I don't know what the computer language of the year 2000 will look like, but
I know it will be called FORTRAN.
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