The Soviet censors' condemnation of Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk just a few years after its wildly popular premiere effectively crushed Shostakovich's operatic career, a genuine musical tragedy, because Lady Macbeth and its predecessor, The Nose, reveal Shostakovich to have all the instincts of a born opera composer. Shostakovich made a revised version, Katerina Ismailova, in 1962, that toned down the opera's sexual and political content, but this 1979 recording by two of the composer's fiercest allies, conductor Mstislav ...
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The Soviet censors' condemnation of Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk just a few years after its wildly popular premiere effectively crushed Shostakovich's operatic career, a genuine musical tragedy, because Lady Macbeth and its predecessor, The Nose, reveal Shostakovich to have all the instincts of a born opera composer. Shostakovich made a revised version, Katerina Ismailova, in 1962, that toned down the opera's sexual and political content, but this 1979 recording by two of the composer's fiercest allies, conductor Mstislav Rostropovich and his wife, soprano Galina Vishnevskaya, is the first of original version, and it's a knock-out. Rostropovich fully embraces the score's ironically manic juxtapositions of the opera's first three acts, as well as the heartfelt anguish of its fourth act. The London Philharmonic Orchestra and Ambrosian Opera Chorus wholeheartedly throw themselves behind Rostropovich's inspired leadership and perform with ferocious passion, and occasionally, with an almost shocking wildness. If...
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