Shostakovich: Symphony 7, Leningrad
Performances and recordings of Shostakovich's wartime Symphony No. 7 ("Leningrad") are rare. Its length makes it difficult to program, and that it is hard for conductors to organize does not make it any easier for audiences to understand. It may seem strange, therefore, that Yuri Temirkanov's performance with the St. Petersburg Philharmonic is perhaps the finest modern performance of this work. With the possible exception ofLeonard Bernstein's account with the Chicago Symphony, Temirkanov's is the longest ever recorded. But, where Bernstein's drags--particularly in the march section of the first movement--Temirkanov's never lets up. More than any other living conductor in this kind of repertory, Temirkanov can suggest the illusion of spontaneity: his widely fluctuating tempos breathe naturally and keep the ear in a state of perpetual expectation. There is tremendous note-to-note tensile strength in the massive first movement; humor tinged with melancholy in the shorter second movement; unflagging drama and intensity in the hushed, expansive third movement; and fervor and ferocity, culminating in a hair-raising coda, conveying the otherwise rambling finale with a sense of prophetic urgency.--Stephen Wigler