Shostakovich Under Stalin's Shadow - Sym Nos. 5; 8 & 9

Andris Nelsons is the Music Director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra and in fall 2015 he was announced as Gewandhauskapellmeister of the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, commencing in the 2017/18 season. With both appointments, and in leading a pioneering alliance between these two esteemed institutions, Andris Nelsons is firmly underlined as one of the most renowned and innovative conductors on the international scene today. The goal is a complete Shostakovich cycle on Deutsche Grammophon with the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Andris Nelsons even though he is only in his mid 30s has had a long journey with Shostakovich. He is one of the last conductors of his generation who still grew up in the Russian and, more especially, the Soviet musical tradition ever since he started his training as a conductor. He studied in St Petersburg with Alexander Titov and also with Mariss Jansons. His new orchestra has had a great tradition in performing many of Shostakovichs works in America for the first time. This provides a kaleido of Shostakovichs struggle with historical events and political pressures. The pre-war eclectic but accessible and popular 5th, in which he would seem to bow to political pressure, ensured his temporary rehabilitation. The beautiful but dark and gloomy mid-war 8th provoked yet again his fall from favor and instead of providing the political authorities with a triumphant post-war 9th Symphony, Shostakovich wrote a light Haydnesque work which would not be performed until after Stalins death. Selections from the Hamlet Suite, possibly Shostakovichs best film score, rounds out this 2 CD set. Review ------ . . incredible tones of strings and woodwind principals. . .the crucial climaxes have punch as well as the right pulling out or back to articulate the centres of gravity . . . [Nelsons has] taken charge of Americas most cultured orchestra and, given of unparalleled naturalness, height and depth, it sounds absolutely wonderful . . . [the disc starts with] the Passacaglia from Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk, and Nelsons connects its dark and superbly present bass lines with the opening of the Symphony. The pacing, the atmosphere, the expressive space for stricken solos and the sheer electric charge of the gallops are up there with the best . . . [this joins] the top ranks of recent Shostakovich . . . and sonically its peerless. --David Nice, BBC Music Magazine (London) This is now Nelsons's BSO. The path to that connection was forged through dozens of warmly received Nelsons-led performances and an impressive series of firsts: the first multi-year project with a major label in over two decades; the excellent first release in that project; the first international tour under Nelsons; and the conductors first contract extension . . . --Jeremy Eichler, Boston Globe . . . [Nelsons achieves] a beautifully detailed, powerfully delineated and meticulously shaped performance . . . If this impressive album is any indication, Nelsons [and the Boston Symphony] . . . have a long and fruitful partnership ahead of them. It might even legitimately become the stuff of legend. --Washington Post

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