This release completes the Boston Symphony Orchestra-Nelsons Shostakovich symphony cycle. Numbers 2, 3 and 12 are generally considered the least popular, while the masterful thirteenth symphony is a powerful denouncement of anti-Semitism in all forms.
After the success of his first symphony, Shostakovich used the next two symphonies to explore different compositional styles and techniques. The second, subtitled “To October,” is a single movement divided into four sections (DG breaks it into two tracks). The opening polyphony wanders somewhat aimlessly, often flirting with atonality. This is followed by a second section featuring more angular, rhythmic writing, though Nelsons’ tempo proves too slow and overly cautious. The Boston orchestra lacks the razor-sharp attack and energy heard in recordings by Barshai and Petrenko. Haitink, at similarly slow tempos, minimizes the music’s episodic nature and instills greater momentum. The concluding section, a choral setting of Alexander Bezymensky’s text praising Lenin and the revolution, is not profound, and the musical setting is grandiose and militant. The choir gives their all, arriving at a powerful climax (6’10”) that is genuinely exciting, but the music then keeps going, the choir resorts to shouting and the tacked-on orchestral postlude feels anti-climactic. The readings mentioned above are all preferable.
The third symphony is again one continuous movement divided into four sections, with a choral finale, a setting of Semyon Kirsanov’s text praising May Day and the October Revolution. While more tonally stable than the second, the experiment in this work is writing music in which thematic material rarely, if ever, repeats. Nelsons seems more engaged and committed, though tempos are again slower than the norm. While the orchestra plays with tremendous energy and character, the brass and percussion onslaught at(Tr. 5/5’17”) in the third section is merely loud and brash, lacking the brutality and menace clearly heard (and felt) in readings by Petrenko and Wigglesworth. Indeed, emotional ambiguity is a consistent problem throughout the performance: Boston offers a huge dynamic range and sophisticated sound, but Petrenko, Wigglesworth, and Barshai uncover a wider range of emotions and atmospheres. The choral finale, imposing and cinematic, expresses political ideals that surely pleased Soviet authorities.
Related Classical Music Reviews
- Review: Shostakovich – Symphonies 1, 14 & 15 – Boston Symphony Orchestra, Nelsons
- Review: Bruckner – Symphonies Nos. 1 & 5 – Nelsons, Gewandhausorchester
- Review: “On DSCH” – Igor Levit, Piano
- Review: Shostakovich – Symphony No. 7 – Noseda, LSO
The twelfth symphony is routinely described as the composer’s weakest, least interesting symphony. Surely written to ensure artistic survival, the subtitle “The Year 1917,” references the Russian Revolution, while the headings of each movement portray key events in the revolution and its leader, Vladimir Lenin. While the first movement is arguably the strongest, the final movement is mostly empty bombast – whether that was Shostakovich’s intent is for the interpreter (and listener) to decide.
There are two basic ways of interpreting the work. The first is to choose quick tempos and clipped articulation, making much of the music a showpiece for the orchestra (with several moments where the percussion should let rip). Petrenko (36’39”) and Neeme Järvi (39’12”) conduct two of the best “quick” performances. I grew up with the Concertgebouw performance under Haitink (43’07”), and it is the benchmark of the second interpretative school: slow tempos wedded to a stern, earnest approach that seeks to expose the music’s hidden profundity. Nelsons’ reading, lasting 45’03”, clearly marks him out as a member of this second school. But despite some excellent playing by the Boston orchestra, there is little tension in the playing and some tempo changes are awkwardly managed. His first movement is slower than any other performance I know, and it feels even slower. For sound and interpretation, Wigglesworth (38’08”) recording with the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra is particularly impressive, the depiction of the Aurora battleship’s shelling of the Winter Palace (closing section of movement 3) captured in BIS’s stunning, state-of-the-art sound.
Symphony No. 13 (“Babi Yar”) is the one undisputed masterpiece in this program, and the last symphony recorded for the series (May 2023). This new performance has an altogether higher level of intensity and commitment, though Nelsons’ is again one of the slowest performances on record (67’46” – only Muti in Chicago is slower, taking 68’27”). The Boston and Chicago performances offer orchestral playing of tremendous character and intensity (sample, for instance, the maniacal wildness in the orchestral introduction to “Humor” or the differently conceived but equally affecting tuba solos in the beginning of the following movement). While Muti’s bass, Alexey Tikhomirov is more authentically Slavic, Matthias Goerne’s delivers the text with palpable emotion. The men of the Tanglewood Festival Chorus and New England Conservatory Symphonic Choir are excellent, ferocious and mournful by turn, with clear and emphatic diction. Frustratingly, the Boston percussion section sometimes gets lost in key moments (both here and in the other three symphonies) while DG’s bright and hefty engineering feels two-dimensional compared to the soundstage offered by Chicago’s in-house label.
Despite many excellent qualities, I found this performance less affecting than I expected, perhaps because proclivity for slow tempos in the other three symphonies now felt like an unconvincing affectation (slow = profound). The faster readings by Petrenko and Barshai certainly disprove that idea. And in revisiting Karabits recording, I found it more communicative and impassioned than I had when reviewing it in 2020, at least in part because his faster tempos were a welcome respite from Nelsons’ approach. In short, this final entry proves disappointing, and none of these new readings competes with established prime recommendations.
Shostakovich – Symphonies Nos. 2, 3, 12 & 13
Boston Symphony Orchestra
Andris Nelsons – Conductor
Deutsche Grammophon, DG 4864965
Recommended Comparisons
Royal Liverpool Philharmonic & Petrenko | WDR Sinfonieorchester & Barshai | Netherlands National Radio Philharmonic & Wigglesworth | London Philharmonic & and Haitink (Nos. 2 & 3) | Royal Concertgebouw & Haitink (No. 12) | Gothenburg Symphony & Jarvi (No. 12) | Chicago Symphony & Muti (No. 13) | Russian National Orchestra & Karabits (No. 13)
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