Royal Liverpool PO, Vasily Petrenko - Dmitry Shostakovich: Symphony No. 4 (2013)

×

Royal Liverpool PO, Vasily Petrenko - Dmitry Shostakovich: Symphony No. 4 (2013)

Close

Recording of the Month

The opening goes off like a cartoon alarm clock, shrill and insistent, the ensuing march more satirical, almost more Prokofiev than Shostakovich in Vasily Petrenko’s hands. This is less the child of Mahler’s Third, more death takes a holiday than summer marches in. Significantly, Petrenko comes to this piece—or appears to—without even scant acknowledgement of its structural anomalies, its weird and wonderful digressions, transformations and mutations. It’s a work teetering between the rational and irrational, the comic and tragic, the real and the imagined. Just when you think it’s slipping into abstraction, something happens to make you think otherwise. Petrenko makes following its thought processes, its phantasmagorical journeying between worlds, so much easier. He makes perfect sense of the seemingly senseless. The overriding effect of [Petrenko’s] performance is one of liberation and inevitability. Perhaps the best of Petrenko’s much-praised cycle, then, and a strong contender for ‘best in catalogue’. The skewed logic of the piece is made gripping, the disparate and the enigmatic reconciled.

Review by Edward Seckerson, Gramophone Magazine (November 2013)

Artistic Quality 10/10, Sound Quality 10/10

There are a lot of performances of this remarkable symphony available now, but this one stands out as having a truly distinctive and persuasive point of view. …Vasily Petrenko more than compensates for any lack of sheer heft with an extra jolt of energy and a razor-sharp rhythmic attack. This is one of those performances that justifies purchasing yet another recording of what is becoming a relatively well-known work. It confirms the piece as a true classic, in the sense that a variety of approaches reveals an endless series of valid interpretive possibilities. The performance is also extremely well recorded, naturally balanced, and vividly present. Wonderful.

Review by David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com (November 2013)

The Symphony No. 4 in C minor is increasingly regarded as one of Dmitry Shostakovich's most important symphonies, due to its directness and power, as well as to its significance in the composer's career. Withdrawn in 1936 and not performed until 1961, the symphony would have been publicly derided for its abrasive dissonances and pessimistic outlook, and Soviet critics would have condemned it for "formalism." Yet today it is admired as an authentic reflection of Shostakovich's public and private struggles, and its uncertain moods and sardonic tone seem truer to his mature style than either the Fifth or Seventh symphonies do. This recording by Vasily Petrenko and the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra is bracing and exciting, and the ferocity of the performance fully conveys the piece's provocative nature. Highpoints are the lightning-fast fugue in the first movement, which is one of the most thrilling passages in all of Shostakovich's music, and the overwhelming Finale, which reveals the influence of Gustav Mahler in its opening funeral march and other parodistic passages. Naxos' recording is clear and resonant, but some adjustments with the volume may be required because of the wide dynamic range.

Review by Blair Sanderson, Allmusic.com

×

Royal Liverpool PO, Vasily Petrenko - Dmitry Shostakovich: Symphony No. 4 (2013)

Close

×

Royal Liverpool PO, Vasily Petrenko - Dmitry Shostakovich: Symphony No. 4 (2013)

Close

×

Royal Liverpool PO, Vasily Petrenko - Dmitry Shostakovich: Symphony No. 4 (2013)

Close