Shostakovich: Symphony No. 10 in E minor, Op. 93

…the sense of occasion brings an extra charge to the Allegretto's climactic battle between Shostakovich's personal signature and the Mahlerian horn cry of liberations, and to the conflicts of... — BBC Music Magazine, May 2009, 5 out of 5 stars More…

Release Date: 1st Sep 2008
Catalogue No: LPO0034
Label: LPO
Length: 54 minutes

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Shostakovich: Symphony No. 10 in E minor, Op. 93

Work length54:56

Album only

Bernard Haitink, London Philharmonic Orchestra

I. Moderato

Track length24:47

Album only

II. Allegro

Track length4:13

$1.05

$1.30

III. Allegretto

Track length11:48

$2.15

$2.60

IV. Andante: Allegro

Track length14:08

$2.15

$2.60

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Shostakovich’s Tenth Symphony was first performed shortly after Stalin’s death in 1953. This was the first of his works to be completed without the restraints of strict communist artistic control hanging over him. A dark and tragic tone is projected throughout the symphony and the distinct contrasts create a dramatic and intense work.

Recorded live at the Royal Albert Hall during the 1986 BBC Proms under conductor Bernard Haitink, the London Philharmonic Orchestra gives a compelling account of this monumental symphony. He instinctively knows with this symphony when to increase tension and when to relax - and whilst relaxing he never loses your attention, there is always direction and an onward undercurrent. The tiny rays of sunshine in the otherwise ominous slow opening are perfectly judged examples of this.

Reviews

May 2009

…the sense of occasion brings an extra charge to the Allegretto's climactic battle between Shostakovich's personal signature and the Mahlerian horn cry of liberations, and to the conflicts of the ultimately triumphant finale.

2010

The Tenth has never seemed dependent on performers steeped in the Russian tradition and the only drawback of Haitink's well played, expertly recorded studio account (1977) was its over-confident tone in the enigmatic third movement. Attempts to decode that Allegretto have gone through several phases since but it remains desirable to convey a mood of wistfulness and frustrated self-assertion.
There's no lack of subtlety in this 1986 Prom relay which also has the advantage of a true sense of euphoria at the end. The applause is earned, frenzied rather than merely respectful though rather abruptly faded. In other respects little has changed. The inexorability and stoicism of the big opening Moderato is predictably impressive and there is no hint of restraint in the Scherzo which some, Kurt Sanderling among them, have been prepared to accept as a portrait of Stalin himself.
Whatever the truth of this, Haitink's musical priorities always deliver the goods and his admirers will welcome this unexpected reclamation from the archives of BBC Radio 3.
The famously resonant acoustic of the Royal Albert Hall gives us the sound from the bottom up, with great weight in the cellos and basses. The booklet-note by Geoffrey Norris appropriately eschews speculative revisionist comment. Is the Tenth Shostakovich's greatest single achievement? Haitink may make you think so.

22nd August 2008

The 10th is almost equally impressive [as Haitink's Shostakovich Symphony No. 4]: taut and controlled in the first movement, wonderfully introspective in the third movement Allegretto and the introduction to the finale.

23rd August 2008

Haitink's long-term vision of the music's organic development comes across compellingly in this live recording. While there are distinct contrasts between the propulsive scherzo, the ghostly dance of the third movement and the inexorable force of the first movement and finale, the thread of the argument is sustained with probing power.

Shostakovich: Symphony No. 10 in E minor, Op. 93

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