Shostakovich - Symphony 5 [Rostropovich-National Symphony Orchestra Of Washington DC]
Shostakovich's Fifth Symphony must be the one i've listened to the most, over all his other Symphonies, it was also the first one i was ever exposed to [Bychkov / Philips], and almost immediately i fell in love with it, however i haven't got a lot of recordings of it, only four, and i guess it's a bit neglected recently, i enjoyed this reading very much, but in retrospect i got so much into the music that i can't exactly put my finger on how this performance is different from the others, i need to listen to this disc more.
Mstislav Rostropovich died in 2007, eight years ago almost to the day, he recorded this disc in 1983 i think, the front cover shows Rostropovich conducting the Symphony [by Christian Steiner], sheet music fanned out in his direction, only about 45 minutes of music on this disc, shame that another Symphony wasn't added, or some Overture or something.
I so much enjoyed the whole of this Symphony, but it's the third movement Largo that really got to me, there's a real spirituality there, deep down it's a sad elegy almost, at first sounds like a study on strings, as Shostakovich uses no brass in this movement, and woodwinds sparingly, but changes to use of a harp and flute duet [2:34-3:12], and slowly it builds up in volume and more anger, but there remains this constant sadness which returns again and again , there's this complex quiet playing on the violas [4:56+], and accompanied by the oboe [5:10-5:46], it's like another elegy duet, with shimmering violins as a backdrop, individual woodwinds come in and out to have their say, and just two quiet twinkles on the glockenspiel [7:07 & 7:11], can change the whole mood of the moment, Shostakovich had that ability, the music swells in agitation, and also includes the piano playing tremolo [8:16-8:48], with the xylophone playing high treble in the background, Shostakovich really knows how to employ strange instruments against each other and for each other, but that sadness sort of intensifies, you expect some sort of glorious resolution at any moment, like in his Tenth Symphony, but at the end it all goes all quiet, and the xylophone plays the simple melody very solemnly like a requiem [12:06-12:27], very poignant, with high violins in tremolo in the background, Rostropovich gets under the skin and to the heart of this movement.
Here's Rostropovich conducting the third movement on YouTube.
Mstislav Rostropovich died in 2007, eight years ago almost to the day, he recorded this disc in 1983 i think, the front cover shows Rostropovich conducting the Symphony [by Christian Steiner], sheet music fanned out in his direction, only about 45 minutes of music on this disc, shame that another Symphony wasn't added, or some Overture or something.
I so much enjoyed the whole of this Symphony, but it's the third movement Largo that really got to me, there's a real spirituality there, deep down it's a sad elegy almost, at first sounds like a study on strings, as Shostakovich uses no brass in this movement, and woodwinds sparingly, but changes to use of a harp and flute duet [2:34-3:12], and slowly it builds up in volume and more anger, but there remains this constant sadness which returns again and again , there's this complex quiet playing on the violas [4:56+], and accompanied by the oboe [5:10-5:46], it's like another elegy duet, with shimmering violins as a backdrop, individual woodwinds come in and out to have their say, and just two quiet twinkles on the glockenspiel [7:07 & 7:11], can change the whole mood of the moment, Shostakovich had that ability, the music swells in agitation, and also includes the piano playing tremolo [8:16-8:48], with the xylophone playing high treble in the background, Shostakovich really knows how to employ strange instruments against each other and for each other, but that sadness sort of intensifies, you expect some sort of glorious resolution at any moment, like in his Tenth Symphony, but at the end it all goes all quiet, and the xylophone plays the simple melody very solemnly like a requiem [12:06-12:27], very poignant, with high violins in tremolo in the background, Rostropovich gets under the skin and to the heart of this movement.
Here's Rostropovich conducting the third movement on YouTube.
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