Shostakovich completed his Third Quartet at the dacha he rented in the village of Komarovo outside Leningrad in early August 1946. It was dedicated to the members of the Beethoven Quartet, who gave the first performance in Moscow on 16th December of the same year. It was withdrawn shortly afterwards, but remained in private circulation during the difficult years that followed. The first movement, in tripartite sonata form, offers a characteristic first subject, introduced by the first violin, and leading to a pianissimo second subject. The material is developed in a double fugue, before the final recapitulation and the re-appearance of the first subject in the coda. The E minor second movement is based on three themes. The first of these is presented by the first violin against an ostinato viola pattern and the second by the viola, with cello ostinato. The third theme is played staccato and pianissimo, the first returning to frame the contrasting episodes. A similar rondo form is used in the third movement, in the key of G sharp minor. Here two of the themes are based on an irregular rhythmic pattern, while the third is a curious march, the viola accompanied by plucked strings, the violins in syncopation. The C sharp minor fourth movement is at the tragic heart of the quartet, the mood established in the strong opening notes, answered in bitter sadness by the first violin. The heart-felt restatement of the theme by the viola, accompanied by the solemn notes of the cello, leads immediately to the last movement, with the first theme stated by the cello, pianissimo and then handed to the first violin. The same instrument introduces the second theme, then taken up by the viola, leading to the return of the first subject in this sonata-rondo movement. A mock-jovial third theme is introduced by the cello. The first theme returns and is elaborated, leading, in a dramatic climax, to the return of the ominous theme of the fourth movement, played by the viola and cello in canon. Other thematic material of the movement is heard again, in full or fragmentary form, before the work comes to an end. The Fifth Quartet of Shostakovich was first performed in December 1953. It had been completed the year before, but the death of Stalin now provided an opportunity for the performance of works that Shostakovich had held back. Once again the quartet, a work of great intensity, is dedicated to the Beethoven Quartet, entrusted, as always, with it's first performance. The opening Allegro non troppo, in sonata form, has a first theme that grows in power, marked always by a brief figure in the viola. There is a more lyrical second subject, introduced by the second violin, and a third, closing theme. The exposition is repeated before the central development. This reaches a dynamic climax with the introduction of a new theme, leading before long to the recapitulation, when the viola figure is heard once more. A sustained high F in the first violin links the movement with the following B minor Andante, with it's characteristically Russian theme shared by viola and first violin. There follows a B major theme of particular and unusual tenderness, in largely consonant harmonies. Both themes return, with a closing theme, and a sustained first violin high F sharp, doubled by the viola, with a cello D, links the second with the third movement. Here a Moderato introduction ushers in a sonata-rondo form Allegretto, in which the viola states the first theme. There is a quietly expressive second theme, but tension mounts in the development section, which brings back themes from the earlier movements. Harmonic tension is relaxed when the first violin, followed by the viola, introduces a passage of recitative. The earlier themes of the movement return, as the music dies away.

Following the release of the Mandelring Quartet's highly acclaimed first volume of the Complete String Quartets of Dmitri Shostakovich, they have now recorded a second volume containing another three. Here again the ensemble addresses the overwhelming intensity of Shostakovich's music with maximum commitment and commanding expressive power without neglecting its intimate and lyrical aspects. The fascinating life of the Mandelring Quartet, three of whose members are siblings, is captured in visual terms in the accompanying DVD, adding new dimensions to the acoustic images their playing evokes in the listener. Quartet No. 8 confirmed Shostakovich's status as a composer of chamber music once and for all. With this five-movement work, composed in just a few days during a visit to the German Democratic Republic, the composer was writing a kind of requiem for himself, replete with quotations from his most important works. He was 53 at the time, and could look back on a turbulent life which for two decades was deeply marked by a battle of wills with Stalin, the Soviet dictator - a trauma which remained with Shostakovich till the end of his life. Further stages in his project to come to terms with the quartet genre are evident in Quartet No. 3 (1946) and Quartet No. 6 (1956), two works which chart his achievement in steering a path between folk music and baroque techniques and reconciling the trauma of war with the reconstruction taking place during the 'thaw' which followed Stalin's death. Shostakovich's 15 quartets represent an imposing body of work. His range and encyclopaedic command of the medium are without parallel in twentieth-century music. 'Outstanding Shostakovich from the Manderling - In this second volume of Shostakovich's quartets, the Manderling Quartet makes it abundantly clear that it is building one of the outstanding cycles in today's catalogue. The sound engineer's exemplary internal balance earns the final accolade, and as an added bonus you can enjoy a short DVD showing the Manderling players at work.' (The Strad)

SHOSTAKOVICH: String Quartets Nos. 1, 8 and 9

SHOSTAKOVICH: String Quartets Nos. 4, 6 and 7

After a long wait, their new recording is finally here! This time the young Finns give the String Quartets of Shostakovich their attention. The Third Quartet may be considered something like the opposite of the composer's "classical" 9th Symphony - and one of the most beautiful of the cycle. The Fourth Quartet is rather lyrical and densely scored. The Seventh Quartet, undoubtedly a painful and personal work, was composed in memory of Shostakovich's first wife, who died in 1954.

The Finnish string quartet Meta4 has developed in recent years, to become one of the world's top quartets. Founded in 2001, the four musicians won the Shostakovich Competition (Moscow) in 2004, and later, in 2007, the Haydn Competition in Vienna. In the years since, the Meta4 Quartet has maintained a busy concert schedule performing in the great halls and musical centers of Europe. The quartet's repertoire includes works from Haydn to the present day, including many works especially written for them. Their first CD (a program of Haydn's op. 55 Quartets) received wide critical acclaim and several coveted awards including the Prize of the German Record Critics' Award and the 2010 Echo Klassik Award.

REVIEW:

Is Gerald Finley today’s Fischer-Dieskau? I don’t mean to suggest that their voices sound alike—or that they share an interpretive perspective. But like his predecessor, Finley is comfortable in opera, oratorio, and song; his repertoire stretches from the Baroque period through Schubert and Wagner to the present; his sense of musical phrase is unfailing; he’s got a sensitivity to literary nuance, coupled with a clarity of enunciation, that few singers can match; and most important of all, his interpretations, for all their emotional immediacy, are marked by an astonishing level of intellect and care. He’s heard in peak form on this new release.

Pride of place goes to the most familiar work, the Suite on Poems by Michelangelo . Written at the very end of Shostakovich’s life, it shares the death-drenched aura of his other late compositions. Still, it has more variety than either of the major works that flank it, the 15th Quartet and the Viola Sonata; and Finley has the tact necessary to bring out its range of expression without in any way diluting its over-riding bleakness. The subtle despair of “Verità,” the sense of wonder in “Mattina,” the anger of “Ira,” the chisel-against-stone defiance of “Creatività”: Finley captures it all with an unfailing strength of character that never loses its sense of refinement. He’s especially skillful when it comes to sustaining long lines (say, in “Notte”) and in maintaining the shape of the recitative-like passages (say, in “Distacco”). He gives the 1943 Romances on English Poetry the same finely kaleidoscopic quality—note, for instance, how he catches the varying shades of desolation in “Sir Walter Raleigh to His Sonne” or of the bitterness in “Macpherson’s Farewell.” And he’s just as comfortable and convincing in Shostakovich’s 1944 orchestration of Annie Laurie , performed with utter simplicity. Thomas Sanderling’s lifetime of experience with Shostakovich pays off in the sureness of the accompaniments.

Although Fischer-Dieskau’s first recording of the Suite , with pianist Aribert Reimann, used Italian texts, Finley’s is apparently the first recording of the orchestral version to do so (hence my choice of the Italian, rather than the Russian, titles of the songs). It also offers what’s advertised as the first recording of Annie Laurie —and the first recording of the Romances to use the large-scale 1943 orchestration (long thought lost) rather than the original 1942 piano accompaniment or the chamber-orchestra version that Shostakovich made late in his life. (To add to the discographic rarity here, the performances of the Romances use the English originals rather than the Russian translations that Shostakovich set). Details of the various editions and their histories are provided in Marianna Kankare-Loikkanen’s informative contribution to the program booklet, which also includes an essay by Finley called “Setting Michelangelo to Shostakovich,” which describes the issues involved both in finding the best texts (as a student, Finley himself studied medieval Italian) and in making the minor musical adjustments necessary so they fit. Good sound, too.

Given the particular choices of language and orchestration, of course, there’s really no competition for this release. Even with a bulging catalog, though, this would be a top priority.

-- Fanfare: Peter J. Rabinowitz

Shostakovich: 24 Preludes and Fugues

SHOSTAKOVICH: Piano Trios Nos. 1 and 2

SHOSTAKOVICH Piano Sonata No. 2. 3 Pieces. A Child’s Exercise Book. Murzilka. Preludes, op. 2/2,3,4,15,18. The Limpid Stream: Excerpts (trans. Shostakovich) • Konstantin Scherbakov (pn) • NAXOS 8.570092 (58:26)


During his lifetime, the artistic reputation of Dmitri Shostakovich was closely related to political ideology. Current revisionism, pace Solomon Volkov’s questionable edition of the composer’s own testimony, would have us believe that Shostakovich was a secretive anti-communist, filling his music with code to such an effect. There is also, however, ample evidence that the great man was an original Bolshevik who happened to clash with oppressive bureaucracies, especially during the Stalin years, which coincided with the mature period of his output. The controversy is still unresolved, but at least the actual music is no longer married to the debate. As we pass the 100-year mark for Shostakovich, his reputation is stronger than ever, not only for the great symphonies that established his fame, but also the smaller works, most notably the string quartets, his lovely vocal output, and—of the material at hand—solo piano music.


The Piano Sonata No. 2 is by far the most substantial piece here. It comes from 1943, but aside from the underlying melancholy that is heard in most of Shostakovich’s work, this does not sound like a war piece. It has a slithering beauty about it and a subtle complexity that reminds us that the composer, who gave the premiere of the piece, was himself an excellent pianist. The construction emphasizes the composer’s devotion to classical forms, as expressed in his deeply personal voice. The first and second movements are rather inward and even mysterious, the Largo sparse nearly to the point of minimalism. The finale is a typical Shostakovich technical tour de force , a theme and variations set of tremendous ingenuity and power.


The rest of the program is enjoyable, but second rate in the composer’s output. The Limpid Stream is a ballet score from 1935 (here, obviously, reduced to solo piano) meant to follow the dictates of socialist realism. Ironically, it was premiered just before the infamous denunciation of the opera Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk , but it, too, failed the Stalinist standard for music of the people, and was also criticized as such in print. The music is hardly threatening, being essentially a collection of lively dances, with little of the bucolic nature deceptively suggested by the title. The rest of the music here is basically juvenilia, written either by a very young Shostakovich, or, in the case of A Child’s Exercise Book , for children, specifically his daughter Galina. Murzilka , probably written in the mid to late 1940s, is one of his brilliant little dashes, clocking in at 49 seconds.


Siberian-born Konstantin Scherbakov, who is doing a series of the solo piano music of Shostakovich for Naxos, seems to be the ideal interpreter of this music. His technique can produce both delicacy and brute power, and he has the full measure of the composer’s dramatic sensibility. Johan Schmidt, on the Cypres label, finds a delicacy in the music that is disarming, but not as true to the spirit. Ashkenazy, on Decca, is somewhere in between, with, not surprisingly, brave and dazzling playing that is more cosmopolitan than Scherbakov’s. Both Schmidt and Ashkenazy have more compelling overall programs than Scherbakov, the former including the complete preludes, the latter with a diverse group of shorter works. But the Decca release is twice the price of the Naxos, and the SACD sound is not noticeably more realistic than the Naxos. So, even though the Scherbakov program is of decidedly mixed strength, I would not hesitate to recommend it for the sonata alone. The rest is whipped cream.


FANFARE: Peter Burwasser

For a less caustic, more ample-toned, and softer-edged set of Shostakovich Op. 34 Preludes than we usually hear, check out Konstantin Scherbakov. His performances contain many beautiful things. No. 2's whimsical scales and runs magically glide over the bar lines, while No. 9 and No. 12's whirling patterns are impressively controlled and supple--and the pianist articulates the marcato/legato interplay in No. 11 and No. 21 to perfection.


My criticism concerns Scherbakov's arch rubato within certain lyrical pieces. His little holdbacks and gratuitous ritards in No. 8, for example, undermine the effect of the composer's indicated ritards, which the pianist barely observes anyway. And a few exposed wrong notes easily could have been corrected (the E-flat in No. 5, measure 14). Such blemishes, however, do not detract from Scherbakov's compelling pianism.


All the virtues Scherbakov brings to the Preludes equally apply to the composer's gnarly Aphorisms cycle and youthful Three Fantastic Dances. The pianist also sails through the First Sonata's unrelenting polytextural thickets and age-of-steel dissonances with maximum power and minimum struggle. Eleanor Thomason's superb engineering yields one of the finest sounding solo piano discs Naxos has produced.
--Jed Distler, ClassicsToday.com

Celebrated international pianist Peter Donohoe continues his series of Shostakovich releases on Signum Classics, following his recent release of the 24 Preludes and Fugues, Op. 87 (SIGCD396). For this new recording he is accompanied for the concertos by the Orchestra of the Swan under their artistic director David Curtis. In the years since his unprecedented success as Silver Medal winner of the 1982 7th International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow, Peter Donohoe has built an extraordinary world-wide career, encompassing a huge repertoire and over forty years’ experience as a pianist, as well as continually exploring many other avenues in music-making. He is acclaimed as one of the foremost pianists of our time, for his musicianship, stylistic versatility and commanding technique.

Classical Music

Without doubt this is one of the finest all-round achievements by Naxos.

At the risk of courting the charge of hyperbole I would venture this CD as one of the most significant Shostakovich releases in recent years. Fine though the award-laden Petrenko symphony cycle undoubtedly is, let's be honest we already know that is an extraordinary group of works and most have received superb performances before. The score presented here is as significant as it is relatively unknown and this new recording can lay fair claim to being definitive. My reasoning runs as follows; Shostakovich was one of the most important Soviet composers. The Soviet Union was the first state to recognise the power of cinema to influence mass mood and opinion. In the late 1920s the cultural elite of the Soviet Union were still being empowered by the state to produce work that was radical and revolutionary. Exploring utopian ideals and cinema was regarded as being at the forefront of the new radical arts. In the era of Silent Cinema the dedicated film-score was still comparatively new and as such had to carry the dramatic and emotional non-visual weight of the story. Shostakovich had first-hand practical experience of playing for film - this gave him a practitioner’s insight into what would ‘work’ that was simply not part of the skill set of any composer before or probably since. As the liner accurately points out - for all the deprivation and residual violence abroad in the new Soviet State this was an age of idealism and hope. Shostakovich had yet to have his idealistic vision of communism curdled by the cynical realities of living in a totalitarian state. He poured into this score the best that the idiom would allow.
 
Whether measured by the yardstick of the history of cinema, the Soviet Union or simply as part of the Shostakovich oeuvre this is an important release. Add to that the fact that this recording offers the most complete, skilfully reconstructed and authentic - as far as it uses the original 14 player line-up - rendition of the score yet made. It becomes a compulsory purchase. This is the third release of Shostakovich film scores conducted by Mark Fitz-Gerald. Very fine indeed though the previous two have been I consider this the best so far. Not that the earlier issues lacked for anything in terms of performing or interpretative quality - simply that this work is more significant than the others on just about every level. Its importance is reflected in the fact that elements of the score have been recorded several times in the past although only the - also fine - version from James Judd on Capriccio with the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra comes close to matching the actual quantity of music recorded. The next most extended sequence - from Valeri Polyansky and his Russian State Symphony Orchestra on Chandos (CHAN 9600) - contains some 44 minutes of the score - less than half of Fitz-Gerald’s epic traversal. A pithier selection is offered by Gennady Rohzdestvensky (Russian Disc RDCD11064). This was my introduction to this score in its original Melodiya LP version (later reissued as ASD3381) and I still enjoy its ribald cabaret character. My sole observation of this new Naxos performance - and it is an observation not a quibble - is that the chamber scale and super-refined quality of the playing fractionally detracts from the pure theatre of the work. When I was a student at the Guildhall School of Music in London - around 1983 I guess - they staged a viewing of this score accompanied by one of the college orchestras. To this day the power of the film and accompanying score lives with me. I strongly suggest that any readers who ever have the opportunity to see this performed live should leap at the chance. It is a magnificent piece of work and one that shows how even at the tender age of 23 Shostakovich understood the compelling power of the moving image. The very valid argument advanced by Fitz-Gerald for using chamber scale forces is that these are the maximum resources that Shostakovich would have had for the premiere. My counter-argument is that every silent movie score would be written with a degree of inherent elasticity. I find it hard to imagine for a moment that Shostakovich would not have preferred more players at the premiere - certainly many of the dramatic passages in the score do not sound as though they are intended for such a chamber group. That being said, Shostakovich was commissioned to provide a smaller orchestration suitable for use in the bulk of Soviet cinemas. Indeed reluctant musical directors often reverted to using generic music when the film was shown rather than attempting the complexities of this new score.
 
Every other recording has opted for a full standard orchestra. Although I do naturally veer towards the bigger sound the more I hear this performance the more I realise that this is a score full of proper music of considerable range and power. Initial impressions are of a riot of colour and witty referencing of popular period tunes from the Marseillaise to Offenbach. The New Babylon of the title refers to a department store which in turn is a metaphor for the decadent Paris pre the Franco-Prussian War of 1870. The ensuing uprising and short-lived Paris Commune provided the early Soviet State with a historic precedent for their own revolution. Lessons learnt from the failure of the Commune influenced the thinking of both Marx and Lenin. Musical experts differ on whether Shostakovich used these melodies because they embodied all things despicably bourgeois or simply because they are rather good tunes. I tend towards the latter opinion - any young composer who can choose as his first dramatic work a setting of Gogol - The Nose - with its dyspeptic view of authority and institutions is not going to become a star-struck-slogan-wielding-party-line-puller two opus numbers later. At the heart of Shostakovich’s abiding genius is the acidic cynicism that clots and curdles even his most superficially benign music.
 
Fitz-Gerald conducts the Basel Sinfonietta and they prove to be stunningly fine collaborators. The scoring is for a string quartet plus bass, a woodwind quintet and a brass group of a second horn, two trumpets - although the second is there simply to relieve the work-load on the first player rather than having an independent part - and a trombone. The line-up is completed by a piano and three percussion. Again this number allows for ease of changes rather than necessity. The use of this essentially chamber ensemble creates an aural world that instantly delineates the composer's deft scoring. For the first time I heard a positively Gallic wit at work, very much along the lines of Ibert's Divertissement although, as always with Shostakovich, you feel a bleak cold despair might be lingering in the shadows. The spirit of "eat, drink and be merry for tomorrow we die" clouds the celebrations. Another fascinating characteristic is developed here by the composer. In collaboration with the film-makers Shostakovich chose not to "illustrate the frame". When critics wish to deride a work the ultimate insult is to say its sounds like film music. This is a short-hand for saying it treats emotions/ideas/situations in an obvious and direct manner - in other words it illustrates the frame. Shostakovich does the reverse - if the image is happy, the music is sad, epic - petty. Its a crazy almost anarchic ploy but one that makes for an extraordinarily powerful juxtaposition of sight and sound. The problem we have here is that we are divorced from the image and wonderful though that is it cannot be anything less than a fraction of the whole.
 
Across the two discs the music is presented as a continuous flow of music as it occurred in each of the film's eight reels. The abiding impression is of a kaleidoscopic riot of sounds and impressions, fragments of musical stories, passing characters and changing mood. There is a hedonistic delight in the sheer indulgence of influence and pastiche. No real surprise to read that the original score quickly fell into disuse - it was both too hard for the average cinema player and too subversive for musicians brought up on a diet of illustrative generic music and excerpted 'classics'. From a historical perspective the quite remarkable thing is that as late as his Op.145 - his Suite on verses by Michaelangelo Shostakovich was applying exactly the same principle of contrast. There a verse with the slightly daunting title Immortality is set to an accompaniment of a piccolo whistling a tune any paperboy would be proud of. Back with New Babylon Fitz-Gerald has more practical experience of conducting this score in context with the film than any other person. This deep knowledge converts into a performance that is perfectly paced and remarkably finds a unity, a through-line in the midst of the mayhem. Allied to the virtuosic playing of his Swiss Orchestra and you will appreciate the level of achievement. The superlatives do not stop there. The engineering is first rate. The sound is quite close, certainly very detailed but it treads the tricky narrow line between large chamber group or small orchestra. The scale of the group is very effectively caught allowing the intimate passages to beguile while the bigger sequences have an impressive impact. Yes I do miss the sheer extra weight that Judd is able to deploy or the uniquely sly and sarcastic Rozhdestvensky. I repeat, the more I listened the more I was converted to the style of this version.

The booklet is surely Naxos' finest yet. Once one gets past the obligatory I-need-to-get-my-eyes-tested minute font this is packed with fascinating information, film stills and even a facsimile page of the original score. Fitz-Gerald has had to reconstruct the final part of the final reel because late in the film's production the ending changed turning the original bleak ending into something more positive. Fascinatingly we have two essays by Shostakovich scholars which give different interpretations for this change. One by David Robinson feels the changes were artistically driven whilst the other by John Riley cites political expediency. Both are full of fascinating insights. Riley provides a detailed synopsis and the notes are completed by an article by Fitz-Gerald outlining the long overdue restoration and reappraisal of this very important score. Don’t listen to this score expecting the profundity of the composer’s greatest work - that was never the remit here. Treated as a musico-social document - as well as containing much wonderfully entertaining music - this is a magnificent achievement from all concerned from composer to performers and the production team.

Curiously for a disc that is literally definitive it does not make me want to throw away either of the two other versions I cherish. Both Judd and Rozhdestvensky in their very differing ways offer valid alternative insights into this box of delights of a score. Judd with his full orchestra gains in impact during the set-piece sequences whilst Rozhdestvensky benefits from an authentically edgy Russian sound and gleeful eccentricity that is quite wonderful. The extra music that has been constructed to cover the discarded ending is effective and suitable but you will have made your mind up about this score and the performance way before that final sequence is reached. Fitz-Gerald achieves an ideal balance with his super-slick players able to slip from queasy waltz to buffoon’s gallop or poignant interlude in an instant. Remarkable results are achieved by ensembles these days in hot-house conditions of read/record. However when you hear a well rehearsed, convincingly argued performance of music with which the players are familiar the benefits are both obvious and great.

Without doubt this is one of the finest all-round achievements by Naxos. 

– Nick Barnard, MusicWeb International

This is a brilliant recital, one that reveals just about every facet of Shostakovich's musical personality in terms of his writing for piano. The novelty for most listeners will be Dances of the Dolls, yet another arrangement of numbers from his film and ballet music, aimed at younger players. Somehow these tunes sound even more charming and witty in their keyboard guise, and Melvin Chen's clean and rhythmically snappy approach lets their puckish humor speak for itself. Both the Aphorisms and the First Sonata reveal the young, modernist Shostakovich, the latter work in particular. Once again Chen manages to give shape and meaning to music that can sound merely noisy, but he does it without sacrificing the music's aggressiveness or impetuosity.

With the Second Sonata we encounter the mature composer around the time of the Second World War, when he was creating some of his finest large works. This sonata never has caught on, partly on account of its typically spare textures, but more likely because it's a very large work (nearly 30 minutes) that ends quietly and enigmatically. Certainly it does not sound in any way lacking in content here. Chen keeps the music interesting, particularly in the long variation finale, which has plenty of contrast and seems perfectly paced. This is music that, given time and a fine performance like this one, will grow on you. So if you like Shostakovich but have not yet warmed to his piano music, try this superbly played and recorded CD. I suspect it will win you over.

--David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com

This disc may be aimed more at the Shostakovich completist, but it's no less wonderful for that. The Girlfriends is a major film score dating from the same time in the 1930s as the scandal surrounding Stalin's denunciation of the opera Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk District. Scored lightly, for string quartet, piano, trumpet, and larger forces only in a couple of numbers, the music is mostly lyrical, attractive, and (given the composer and the period) remarkably sensitive. Some of it had to be reconstructed from the actual film soundtrack, but conductor Mark Fitz-Gerald has done his job excellently, and he leads a sensitive and cogent performance of the 23 brief movements that comprise the complete score.

Rule, Britannia! and Salute to Spain both fall into the composer's Socialist Realist hackwork, but I have to confess that the music is fun: brash, often militant, noisy, and unashamedly populist. The former strongly recalls the musical language of the Third Symphony, only it's less garish and more tuneful. There seems to be some confusion concerning one of the songs in Salute to Spain, "Miy Idyom", which means "We are going [on foot]" but that the note-writer translates for some strange reason as "My Idiom". In any case, no one knows what song was actually intended for the stage production, so an anti-Fascist Spanish Civil War song makes an appropriate substitute. Fitz-Gerald's conducting is really exciting in these two suites, and the orchestral playing is excellent as well.

Potentially the most interesting item here is the six-and-one-half-minute incomplete movement of what Shostakovich originally planned as his Ninth Symphony. Fans of the composer will recognize one of the themes as a loud version of the Tenth Symphony's first-movement second subject (the limping waltz for clarinet). As for the rest, it's clear why Shostakovich abandoned his initial effort: the remaining ideas (or should I say "idea", as there's only one) are uninteresting, the music uniformly loud and heavily scored. Still, as I said, this is a disc for connoisseurs, and you can only admire the composer's self-discipline in scrapping this effort in favor of the delightful Ninth Symphony we all know and love. Go for it.

--David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com