Dmitri Shostakovich 
Symphony No. 5 in D minor, op. 47
Symphony No. 9 in E-flat major, op. 70 
Valery Gergiev conducting the Kirov Orchestra 
SACD No: Philips 470 651-2 [Hybrid]

Sergei Rachmaninoff 
Symphony No. 2 in E minor, op. 27
Vocalise No. 14, op. 34
Ivan Fischer conducting the Budapest Festival Orchestra 
SACD No.: Channel Classics CCS SA 21604 [Hybrid]

Review By Wayne Donnelly
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  There are currently three conductor/orchestra combinations whose every recording is for me a must-audition.  One is my local band, the San Francisco Symphony under Michael Tilson Thomas, now halfway through an exciting and significant Mahler cycle.  The others, featured here, are St. Petersburg's Kirov Orchestra under music director (since 1996) Valery Gergiev and the Budapest Festival Orchestra with founding (in 1983) conductor Ivan Fischer.

In this age of jet-setting superstar conductors, the world-class orchestras of America and Western Europe now seem increasingly to play in an "international" style that offers pretty much the same polished ensemble virtuosity in all areas of the symphonic repertoire. Sure, the Vienna Philharmonic is still the ultimate Bruckner orchestra, and the New York Philharmonic may have an especially intuitive grasp of Aaron Copland. But in the bulk of the mainstream repertoire we typically hear more stylistic similarities than differences in performances from Boston, Berlin, Chicago, Amsterdam, London, and so on.

The same cannot be said about the great orchestras of Russia and Eastern Europe. No doubt the decades of Cold War and east/west ideological antagonisms contributed to the relative insularity of the artistic institutions behind the Iron Curtain.  But even today, with a great deal of international artistic interchange, ensembles such as the Czech and St. Petersburg Philharmonics, and certainly the Kirov and Budapest bands, remain sui generis, faithfully preserving their great heritages.

Gergiev and the Kirov (he is the general director of St. Petersburg's Mariinsky Theater, which comprises the Kirov Opera and Ballet, for whom the orchestra plays in the pit) have recorded an impressively inclusive catalog of Russian opera as well as numerous ballet and symphonic works. But the CD that turned this writer instantly into a Kirov fanatic was their stunning Rite of Spring--the most exciting, colorful, sensuous, pagan, and purely Russian performance of that masterpiece ever recorded.

With Fischer and the Budapest, my epiphany came from their series of Bartok's major works on Philips.  Their recordings of the Concerto for Orchestra, Music for Strings, Percussion and Celeste, Miraculous Mandarin and other works display an intuitive expressiveness and unique sense of grotesquerie that surpass even the hallowed interpretations of legendary Hungarians Fritz Reiner and Antal Dorati.

Both ensembles share the uncanny ability to convey with absolute unanimity and conviction the most nuanced phrasing, the slightest detail of their conductors‘ interpretations.  On both of these recordings one gets the feeling of total communication, of 100 players linked intuitively to a single mind.  It's a thrilling thing to hear.

Shostakovich 5 & 9

The Fifth Symphony is the composer's best-known and most frequently programmed work.  The paradigm for its interpretation was established by the Leningrad (now once again St. Petersburg) Philharmonic under the great Yevgeny Mravinsky:  broad, powerful and militant phrasing, progressing from tragedy in the first three movements to triumph in the finale — just the kind of things that Soviet critics ate up.

Much has been made of Shostakovich writing on the score manuscript "A Soviet artist's reply to just criticism." For neither the first nor last time in his long career, Shostakovich had run afoul of the Soviet demand for socialist realism — the musical equivalent of those endless paintings of noble-visaged peasants cooperatively gathering wheat.  Both his difficult Fourth Symphony and his satirical opera Lady MacBeth of Mtinsk had been widely attacked as decadent, and it seems likely that his mea culpa inscription on the score of the Fifth was not a sincere recantation, but rather a tactical retreat that was, fortunately, successful in lowering the bureaucratic heat — at least for a while. 

Gergiev's reading represents a departure from the Mravinsky model.  His tempi are flexible, and do not exhibit the relentlessness so often heard in the first two movements.  Like many others, he finds the soul of the piece in the lyrical third movement, but he emphasizes the songful more than the tragic elements.  The finale does not lack energy, but there is a whimsical element that undercuts the usual militancy.  I would characterize the drama of Gergiev's Fifth as interior and psychological rather than social(ist). More then any other Fifth I know, this one evokes shades of Gustav Mahler. I would not make it my only recording, but I value it highly as a perceptive and original alterative view of the music.

With his Ninth Symphony Shostakovich again confounded the expectations of the Soviet cultural establishment.  Following the monumental wartime Seventh (Leningrad) and Eighth Symphonies, it was widely anticipated that his Ninth would be in the tradition of monumental Ninths: Beethoven, Schubert, Bruckner and Mahler. Instead, he delivered a mercurial, ironic, even playful work that stands in sharp contrast to the grand scale of the surrounding Eighth and Tenth Symphonies.

Most performances of the Ninth gravitate toward either darkly sardonic or the high-spirited romp. (My personal favorite, in the latter category, is by Zdenek Kosler with the Czech Philharmonic on Praga.) Again, Gergiev follows his own — as it were — drummer. His opening movement is very relaxed, and he takes pains to illuminate subtle beauties along the way that most conductors run roughshod over.  The arc of this performance shows a gradually increasing intensity, with the most powerful phrasing in the finale.  I must have played this performance 20 times, and I still haven't quite figured out how and why Gergiev does it this way. But I haven't gotten even slightly bored with this unique interpretation.

The SACD sound is very good, slightly better in the Ninth than in the Fifth.  The CD layer is nearly as good. I'd say any serious Shostakovich fan needs to hear this disc.

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Rachmaninoff Second Symphony

Along with his Second and Third Piano Concerti, Rachmaninoff's Second Symphony is a favorite whipping boy for many lovers of "real" 20th-century music — as if these hyper-romantic scores were unwelcome time-traveling wetbacks from the previous emotionally unruly era. The symphony may fairly be faulted for its profligate length and unwieldy organization, but it is so chock-full of gorgeous tunes — especially that heartrending clarinet solo in the third movement — that in spite of its imperfections I find it well nigh irresistible in a superior performance.

The consensus favorite recording would seem to be Previn's lush first go-round with the London Symphony for EMI, and there is no denying the sumptuous sonics of my British LP pressing.  My own favorite performance, at least until now, has been Mikhail Pletnev's disciplined, highly dramatic version with the Russian National Orchestra on DGG CD.

Fischer, however, is hors de concours. Never does this performance seem either rushed or self-indulgently slow.  The symphony unfolds in a natural, unforced manner, with the players illuminating every phrase with a radiance that transcends conventional notions of precision and virtuosity.  On this disc the Budapest Festival sounds like the greatest orchestra in the world! The Vocalise is cut from the same cloth; I can't imagine a more beautiful performance.

The SACD sound is virtually beyond reproach, and the CD sound is nearly as good.  Like the Shostakovich, this disc should be heard by any lover of Rachmaninoff, great sound, or brilliant orchestral playing.  This is these forces' first release on the Channel Classics label, and they could hardly be better served. I can't wait for more!

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