Shostakovich: Symphonies No. 6 & No. 10
You may think Texas is an unlikely place to deliver first-rate recordings of Shostakovichian angst, but these are outstanding performances. The Dallas Symphony plays at the highest level and its wind players, especially, deliver their many solo bits with panache. Litton's stylistic mastery of the Shostakovich style is evident in the way he maintains tension in the long slow movements and the sardonic brio with which he tackles the faster ones. His Allegro movement of the 10th, supposedly a bitter portrait of Stalin, has the requisite vicious bite, and he invests the work's finale with a joyous sense of liberation. In the Sixth, the long opening Largo, more than half the symphony's length, is as harrowing as any on record. Outstanding sonics help seal a strong recommendation.--Dan Davis