Symphony no. 8 in C minor op. 65 (1943) [58:15]
Philharmonic-Symphony
Orchestra of New York/Artur Rodzinskirec. 15 October 1944, Carnegie Hall, New York, live broadcast including introductory and closing announcements
GUILD
GHCD 2322 [59:06]International Record Review July/August 2007
Shostakovich, Symphony No. 8 in C minor, Op. 65., Philharmonic-Symphony Orchestra of New York/Artur Rodzinski.
(medium price, 58 minutes, ADD).Remastering Engineer Peter Reynolds. Date Live performance in New York an October 15th, 1944.
This is an important issue in making generally available the second-earliest performance of Shostakovich's Eighth Symphony known to survive. It was premiered in Moscow by Evgeny Mravinsky on November 4th, 1943 and the work's western premiere was given an April 2nd, 1944 by the present performers. That by Serge Koussevitzky and the Boston Symphony on April 21st is currently the earliest surviving account (there are at least three versions of the first movement - recorded over the following fortnight - in circulation, and one from April 1945 that received an official release an Biddulph; Mravinsky's Studio recording took place only in 1947), but this broadcast performance of October 1944 is no less significant or authoritative as an interpretation.
As Robert Matthew-Walker points out in his booklet note, Artur Rodzinski had a fine track record in Shostakovich, having already recorded the First and Fifth Symphonies and given the US Premiere of Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk district. At around 58 minutes, his is a taut and no-nonsense reading that projects the work in forcefully but never crassly immediate terms, with little room for the brooding introspection evident in recent decades. The Adagio is securely wrought, with an appealingly wistful second theme (4'51") and a central climax (10'15") whose drama does not preempt either the plangency of the cor anglais soliloquy (17'15") or the becalmed ambivalence of the coda (22'48").
Neither Scherzo has quite this focused intensity: the Allegretto has the right forced jollity, but internal balance on the return of the main theme (3'35") is congested and the closing bars are fallibly executed; while the Allegro - bracingly swift, as were most Western accounts using the corrupt parts - lacks the implacability of either Mravinsky's or Koussevitzky's, though the trio (2'45") has a wonderfully tensile irony. Balefully launched, the Largo is finely handled, Rodzinski ensuring the passacaglia theme is audible throughout, and with a telling 'lightening' of mood so that the close (8'14") is a perfect transition to the finale. Its subtler shades yet to be explored, this emerges as cautiously optimistic, with a suave second theme (1'38") and a climax (6'38") that exudes defiance rather than despair. Ensemble falters thereafter, but the coda (10'39") still impresses through its hardwon poise.
While it has previously enjoyed limited circulation (on the Fonotipia label), this charged account - with Rodzinski just into his second season with the `Philharmonic
Symphony Orchestra of New York' - needed to be widely disseminated. The present release, transferred at a high level that conveys the limited hut natural dynamic range, does it full justice. All credit to the American Rubber Company for sponsoring the original broadcast and to Guild for releasing it some 63 years on. Richard Whitehouse
Dmitri
SHOSTAKOVICH
(1906-1975)
Symphony no.
8 in C minor op. 65 (1943) [58:15]
Philharmonic-Symphony
Orchestra of New York/Artur Rodzinski
rec. 15 October 1944, Carnegie Hall, New York, live broadcast including
introductory and closing announcements
GUILD
GHCD 2322 [59:06]
Hitler’s attack on Russia and the consequent Soviet shift of allegiance towards the British-American axis meant that competition became hot for the first western performances of Shostakovich’s great symphonic fresco the “Leningrad” Symphony, his seventh. Sir Henry Wood was first off the mark with a BBC broadcast only three months after the Russian premičre, which had been conducted by Samuel Samosud on 5 March 1942. A week after the broadcast, Wood gave the first western concert performance. Then, on 19 July, Arturo Toscanini gave the first American broadcast.
The surviving recording shows that Toscanini managed to conceal his lack of sympathy with the musical idiom, but he never conducted the work again and declined to give the western premičre of no. 8 without even seeing the score. This new work had been completed on 9 September 1943 and had its first performance in Moscow, under Mravinsky, less than two months later. The honour fell to Artur Rodzinski to unveil the symphony to the west at the Carnegie Hall with the New York Philharmonic-Symphony Orchestra on 2 April 1944. He repeated it later the same year in the performance preserved on this disc. The sound is remarkably clean and clear for the date. The dynamic range is obviously limited, the quality a little shallow with some shellac hiss, but quite frankly I wouldn’t expect a studio recording from the same time to sound any better.
Mravinsky’s several recordings, some in fairly recent sound, obviously have a very special authority. Rodzinski, however, yielded to no one in his understanding of the music. No less a martinet than Mravinsky himself, he sees that the long, mainly slow, first movement has a suppressed tension, rather than the sense of doleful meditation which more recent western conductors such as Haitink and Previn have found in it. Like Mravinsky, he dares the woodwind to push their tone to within a millimetre of overblowing. When the explosion comes it is a fearful one.
The savageries, drolleries and violence of the next two movements are resolved with whiplash attack while the ambiguous nature of the final passacaglia is realized with great insight. The pessimistic tone of the symphony won it few favours at the time, on either side of the Atlantic. Even in 1967 Robert Layton could write that “it is not a work in which the composer evinces complete mastery of his material”. Another decade and a reappraisal of Mahler had to intervene before it came to be seen as one of Shostakovich’s most searching masterpieces. Sometimes a new work falters because of poor initial performances. We can hear that Rodzinski’s advocacy and understanding left nothing to be desired.
A disc for connoisseurs and specialists, I suppose, but Rodzinki’s art deserves investigation and the present production is as good a place to start as any. Robert Matthew-Walker’s excellent essay provided me with the information for my introductory paragraphs. Christopher Howell
Page revised Friday 20 2007