In the graphic second movement, ‘The 9th of January’, Mravinsky whips up a real storm at times and there’s huge power in the playing. The orchestral sound features the traditional Russian brass timbres, which have now largely vanished from the scene. Indeed, there’s a raw edge to the orchestral sound…that’s really appropriate for this music. During the string fugue…the players really dig in and the playing has tremendous intensity. The performance is viscerally exciting and a very Russian sound…is produced. The percussion-dominated climax…has burning urgency…and really does sound like fusillades of shots. At 14:25 the music cuts off abruptly—and Mravinsky’s cut-off is razor sharp—before a pianissimo return to material from the first movement. This passage is quite chilling…

The third movement, ‘Eternal Memory’, stems from an extended melody—a lament for the fallen—which begins on the violas. Mravinsky builds this movement impressively, achieving an impassioned main climax…The finale, ‘The Tocsin’, is something of an enigma. The brass playing has raw power and there’s a towering climax before, once again, the music sinks back into another reprise of the glacial material from the first movement. This presages an extended, bleak threnody for cor anglais. Mravinsky takes this very broadly. His cor anglais player offers doleful eloquence and this passage is a true lament…The conclusion is blazing and biting.

This is a great performance of a symphony that I’ve long felt is underrated in the Shostakovich canon.

This is an interpretation of the time in which the symphony appeared and, moreover, it’s by one of Shostakovich’s greatest interpreters. Mravinsky offers an interpretation of raw power which confronts the listener. This is one of those recordings that’s an essential element in any Shostakovich collection. © 2012 MusicWeb International Read complete review