Boston flops in Shostakovich
Album Of The WeekFrom the Lebrecht Album of the Week:
I can’t remember a pre-Christmas season that started so sluggishly, without an obvious blockbuster on display. DG and Sony are leading with cultish solo pianists; Warner are dormant. Jonas Kaufmann is singing weakly about cinema. There are no big releases out there to drive a healthy economy.
I turned to the continuation of the Boston Shostakovich cycle which I have reviewed before with some enthusiasm…
Read on here.
And here.
En francais ici.
The author hates America. He has several axes to grind: Boston, NYC, Cleveland, Chicago.
Interesting. Your comments about Nelsons’ lacklustre conducting of Shostakovich would also apply, imho, to the Prokofiev 5 he gave with the BSO at the Proms this year. I’m sad: he used to be such an exciting conductor. His Lohengrin at Bayreuth was wonderful.
I what’s happened to Andris??? At the CBSO he was BRILLIANT! He’s now overweight and as you said, lacklustre.
What does him being overweight have to do with anything? Stop bashing people because of weight. It’s not any of your goddamned business. Shame!
Have you even listened to the recording before commenting on Nelsons’ performance? What is the relevance of mentioning his being ‘overweight’???
His persona IS an indication of his possible depression and why his buoyancy has diminished. And I have just returned to Oxford from Leipzig where his conducting of Mendelssohn was a disappointment. Sorry…… looks do count!
I’ve heard that his days in Leipzig are numbered.
“His Lohengrin at Bayreuth was wonderful” – propably cos the orchestra knew it better than he did
Shostakovich was last great symphonist of the twentieth century. However unlike Beethoven, the quality of the 15 total symphonies is inconsistent. These are not the strongest works in the cycle so it’s difficult to compare them with 1, 5,6,7,10, and 11 which are the best ones. The BSO is a great orchestra capable of achieving the highest standards of performance. I would love to hear their recordings of the best of Shostakovich.
13 is a great piece….it tends to come across quite well in recordings… I’ll want to hear the Nelsons rendition.
I heard Nelsons in 2013 with BerlinPhil (Baden-Baden) and in the very same hall with the same orchestra in 2022 – his energy and drive are completely gone (the “Firebird” was in a very sleepy mode – and the orchestra has played quite a lot of Russian repertoire with Petrenko recently (not sleepy at all)).
Chostakovitch – Boston. A casting mistake. Maybe New York or Cleveland or Chicago but not Philly nor Boston. He should have done the Bruckner with Boston and Chosta with Leipzig. Both cycles are unsatisfactory…
Couldn’t Boston have hired a female conductress to get the Shostakovich done right? Wasn’t Tár available? Or Maestra Cate Bland-chett? Speranza Scappucci?