Shostakovich: Symphonies, Vol 9: Symphony No. 4 in C minor, Op. 43
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DMITRI SHOSTAKOVICH
Shostakovich: Symphonies, Vol 9: Symphony No. 4 in C minor, Op. 43
Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, Vasily Petrenko
[ Naxos / CD ]
Release Date: Friday 1 November 2013
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Completed in 1936 but withdrawn during rehearsal and not performed until 1961, the searing Fourth Symphony finds Shostakovich stretching his musical idiom to the limit in the search for a personal means of expression at a time of undoubted personal and professional crisis.
The opening movement, a complex and unpredictable take on sonata form that teems with a dazzling profusion of varied motifs, is followed by a short, eerie central movement. The finale opens with a funeral march leading to a climax of seismic physical force that gives way to a bleak and harrowing minor key coda. The Symphony has since become one of the most highly regarded of the composer's large-scale works.
Vasily Petrenko was appointed Principal Conductor of the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra in 2006 and in 2009 became Chief Conductor. He is also Chief Conductor of the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra, Principal Guest Conductor of the Mikhailovsky Theatre of his native St Petersburg, and Principal Conductor of the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain.
"Liverpudlians love him - as does just about everyone else - and there's no doubt that Vasily Petrenko has revitalised the RLPO since he became their principal conductor in 2005" (MusicWeb)
"the Liverpool players get around the enormous technical challenges with great verve, and the self-destructive climaxes are never shirked. But there's a brittleness to how Petrenko treats some of the episodes...Much of his reading, though, is spot-on" (Guardian)
"Haitink has acknowledged that the Fourth "is a difficult work to handle and has to be kept on a leash". Petrenko echoes that view in this performance; the proportions and sometimes wild discourse are held in perspective. But it also tempers punch with sensitivity" (Daily Telegraph)
Recording of the Month - Gramophone November 2013
