Shostakovich: Symphonies No. 2 & 12 (2007)

Are the Second and Twelfth the weakest of Shostakovich's 15 symphonies? Possibly -- but there are those who might argue that the Third and Eleventh are just as weak -- and in exactly the same ways. After all, both the Second and the Third are one-movement works starting with an inchoate instrumental introduction and climaxing in a banal choral hymn, while both the Eleventh and Twelfth are four-movement wholly instrumental programmatic works depicting revolutions in story and song, though with very little formal cohesion. ... Read More

Are the Second and Twelfth the weakest of Shostakovich's 15 symphonies? Possibly -- but there are those who might argue that the Third and Eleventh are just as weak -- and in exactly the same ways. After all, both the Second and the Third are one-movement works starting with an inchoate instrumental introduction and climaxing in a banal choral hymn, while both the Eleventh and Twelfth are four-movement wholly instrumental programmatic works depicting revolutions in story and song, though with very little formal cohesion. This disc, Vol. 6 in a series of the composer's complete symphonies, couples the Second and Twelfth -- but fails to make a convincing case for either. In the past, Roman Kofman and the Beethoven Orchester Bonn had made some fine Shostakovich recordings -- the Fifth and Eighth, for example -- and some not so fine -- the Thirteenth, for example -- and this disc falls squarely into the not so fine category. Although professionally played and competently conducted, neither Kofman nor the... Read Less

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2007, MDG UPC: 760623120669 SACD See All from $25.86