This release on Chandos had the misfortune to appear in the wake of the live reading of the work by Riccardo Muti and the Chicago Symphony, with bass Alexey Tikhomirov. Shostakovich's widow was in the audience for that performance, and Muti successfully swung for the fences in the shattering first movement, expressing the shock felt by poet Yevgeny Yevtushenko at the mass grave of Jews that he visited at Babi Yar, finding no memorial for the dead, but there is much to recommend in this recording with the fine Russian ...
Read More
This release on Chandos had the misfortune to appear in the wake of the live reading of the work by Riccardo Muti and the Chicago Symphony, with bass Alexey Tikhomirov. Shostakovich's widow was in the audience for that performance, and Muti successfully swung for the fences in the shattering first movement, expressing the shock felt by poet Yevgeny Yevtushenko at the mass grave of Jews that he visited at Babi Yar, finding no memorial for the dead, but there is much to recommend in this recording with the fine Russian National Orchestra under Kirill Karabits, with Oleg Tsibulko as the soloist. First is Chandos' excellent engineering from the DZZ Studio 5 in Moscow; those who prefer a studio recording should consider this. Beyond the sound, there is the sharp edge given the symphony's inner movements here. Shostakovich challenged the Soviet establishment first with the work's condemnation of Soviet anti-Semitism (the performers were forced to water down Yevtushenko's anguished text at the premiere), and...
Read Less
Add this copy of Symphony 13 to cart. $21.80, new condition, Sold by Importcds rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Sunrise, FL, UNITED STATES, published 2020 by PentaTone Classics.
