Shostakovich - Symphony 10 [Shostakovich-London Symphony Orchestra]
This Tenth is recorded by Dmitri Shostakovich's son Maxim, someone you would feel very credible to know his Father, and possibly interpret his works, i'm not so sure a blood linage qualifies anyone to 'get inside the Composer', and certainly Maxim doesn't seem an all round Conductor, only really performing his Father's works, it's an interesting effort nonetheless, and it's good to hear the Tenth yet again, last month i played Solti's offering [9th May 2012], and it's good to hear this one with that one in mind.
Maxim Shostakovich is Russian, born in 1938, he's now 74, he recorded this disc in 1990, the booklet front cover shows the Soviet red star in the middle, and the letting is boxed in what looks like metal indentations, polished to a high sheen, a strange front cover, but i like it, the back cover of course has a nice portrait of Maxim Shostakovich on it, a nice dark background makes him stand out.
On this listen i was taken aback with the third movement Allegretto, it's solemn, starts of by a dialogue with strings, but turns quickly into a 'string quartet', i like the way Shostakovich introduces the piccolo [1:08-1:44], a great use of orchestral colour, and later he uses dark and slow strings, meandering but welding [4:15-4:48], again the use of piccolo is great [5:38-6:06], horns constantly bookend each section, there's an extended section where pizzicato strings are used, lazy and fractured [6:12-7:40], Shostakovich is a genius with the way he can marry up all the different woodwinds, especially where the music is rather sparse, and then almost out of nowhere he gives us a startling march [8:47-9:25] replete with oompah sounding brass, with a military side drum for a beat, only a few days ago i mentioned that Bruckner did this with the fourth movement of his Eighth Symphony [18th June 2012], the movement ends quietly, horns and low pizzicato strings, but at the very end a solo piccolo gives us four pips twice, and then four last ones at half speed [13:10-13:28], very strange, but very effective, a sparse Symphony, but one that's teeming with action if you listen carefully.
Here's Ulyses Ascanio conducting the third movement Allegretto on YouTube.
