Shostakovich: Cantatas

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Bass Alexei Tanovitski could be more nuanced, but there's no faulting the Estonians' open, searing sounds...Bright, open children's voices join authentic choral fervour and the engineering gives... — BBC Music Magazine, August 2015, 4 out of 5 stars More…

Release Date: 27th Apr 2015
Catalogue No: 2564616666
Label: Erato
Length: 79 minutes

Presto Recording of the Week

11th May 2015
Presto Recordings of the Year

Finalist 2015

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Shostakovich: The Execution of Stepan Razin, Op. 119 (Live)

Work length29:25

$1.30

$1.70

$1.95

Aleksei Tanovitski (bass)
Estonian Concert Choir, Estonian National Symphony Orchestra
Paavo Järvi

Shostakovich: The Sun Shines over our Motherland, Op. 90 (Live)

Work length14:16

$1.30

$1.70

$1.95

Narva Boys Choir, Estonian Concert Choir, Estonian National Symphony Orchestra
Paavo Järvi

Shostakovich: The Song of the Forests, Op. 81

Work length36:08

$9.10

$11.90

$13.65

Aleksei Tanovitski (bass), Konstantin Andreyev (tenor)
Narva Boys Choir, Estonian Concert Choir, Estonian National Symphony Orchestra
Paavo Järvi

I. The war ended in victory (Bass, Chorus) - Live

Track length5:00

$1.30

$1.70

$1.95

II. We will clothe our homeland with forests (Boys Chorus) - Live

Track length2:53

$1.30

$1.70

$1.95

III. Memories of the past (Bass, Chorus) - Live

Track length7:00

$1.30

$1.70

$1.95

IV. The pioneers plant the forests (Boys Chorus) - Live

Track length2:01

$1.30

$1.70

$1.95

V. The people of Stalingrad go forth (Chorus) - Live

Track length3:23

$1.30

$1.70

$1.95

VI. A walk into the future (Tenor, Chorus) - Live

Track length6:32

$1.30

$1.70

$1.95

VII. Glory (Tenor, Bass, Boys Chorus, Chorus) - Live

Track length9:19

$1.30

$1.70

$1.95

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Recording of the Week, Shostakovich Cantatas from Paavo Järvi and the Estonian National Symphony Orchestra

11th May 2015

James listens to three rarely-heard cantatas by Shostakovich, conducted by Paavo Järvi.

Following international acclaim, including Estonia’s first Grammy Award, for their Grieg, Sibelius, Tüür and Pärt recordings on Erato, the Estonian-born conductor Paavo Järvi and the Estonian National Symphony Orchestra turn to rarely performed choral works by Dmitri Shostakovich: Song of the Forests Op. 81, The Sun Shines on our Motherland Op. 90, and The Execution of Stepan Razin Op. 119. The new release confirms Järvi’s reputation as a conductor with a deep understanding for the music of Shostakovich, as well as a particular affinity for choral music, which has a strong tradition in his homeland. These cantatas have a particular significance in Estonia – a former Soviet Socialist Republic under Stalinist rule – where, according to Järvi, the orchestra’s performance of the works was “scandalous”.

“Järvi clearly prizes highly charged music making, often at top speed, with thoughtful phrasing and sharply punched accents… these qualities yield refreshing, powerful performances.” - New York Times

“It got so out of hand that I actually had to have a bodyguard with me because the local papers started publishing articles about me praising Stalin in my concert program,” he told Estonian World. “It was because the lyrics in one of the cantatas were praising Stalin but during the Brezhnev time, the texts were changed so that Stalin’s name was not mentioned. I put all the original lyrics back together…so you get something really scary.”

Shostakovich composed Song of the Forests in 1949, a year after he had been publicly condemned by Stalin’s regime for the anti-Soviet nature of his music and forced to publicly apologise. A large-scale patriotic oratorio for tenor and bass soloists, children’s choir and mixed choir with orchestra, Song of the Forests is set to text by the Soviet poet laureate Yevgeny Dolmatovsky that rhapsodises about Stalin’s post-World War II reforestation programme in Russia and Siberia – a message that takes on renewed environmental urgency today. The work earned Shostakovich the Stalin Prize in 1950.

Shostakovich composed The Sun Shines on our Motherland in 1952 to another text by Yevgeny Dolmatovsky for mixed chorus, boys’ chorus, large symphony orchestra and a brass band of trumpets and trombones. The sun symbolises the Communist Party, leading Russia toward the future. By the time Shostakovich composed The Execution of Stepan Razin for bass, concert chorus and orchestra in 1964, Stalin had died and the composer felt able to take a few risks under the regime of Nikita Khrushchev. The cantata is set to a grisly poem about a 17th-century Cossack revolutionary. Järvi calls the work an “absolute masterpiece” and a “critical view of the Soviet regime”.

“It is very interesting to see all those three cantatas under the same label, on the same record, because you see the two extremely opposing sides of the great genius composer,” he explains.

Reviews

August 2015

Bass Alexei Tanovitski could be more nuanced, but there's no faulting the Estonians' open, searing sounds...Bright, open children's voices join authentic choral fervour and the engineering gives a superb, widescreen picture.

13th June 2015

By far the best is The Execution of Stepan Razin, a brutal denunciation of the Tsars (or perhaps all dictatorships?). The other two...are bombastic, singalong Communist anthems bludgeoned from a cowed composer under Stalin’s watchful gaze. Järvi and his Estonian forces, recorded live, give Shostakovich their all.

July 2015

[there isn't] much that performers can do, beyond giving them a maximum of welly. Which is precisely what Paavo Järvi and his Estonian forces do...There are certainly no forces I would rather listen to in this repertoire than the ones assembled for this acoustically resplendent disc.

May 2015

Kondrashin has met his match at last, for this performance [of Razin] grabs the listener by the throat and never lets go...the Estonian orchestra play with a heady mix of precision and power that's utterly right for the piece; even in the score’s quieter passages there’s a thrum of electricity that you simply would not get in a studio...the playing, singing and sound are sensational.

11th May 2015

Järvi's evident belief in the music's quality is greatly responsible for the success of this recording, and he and his Estonian forces show that there is still much to enjoy in all three pieces, no matter how painful to Shostakovich the requirements of their composition may have been.

24th May 2015

Järvi’s Estonians perform with fervour and the Razin makes the issue worthwhile.

Shostakovich: Cantatas

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Recording of the Week, Shostakovich Cantatas from Paavo Järvi and the Estonian National Symphony Orchestra

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