April 23, 2014

  • Reissue of Shostakovich Romances and Michelangelo Settings

     

    Shostakovich: Michelangelo Suite; Romances
    Anatoli Kotscherga, bass.  Anatoli Babykin, bass. Wladimir Kasatchuk, tenor.
    WDR Symphony Orchestra, Koln/Michail Jurowski
    Brilliant Classics 94649
    Total Time:  58:08
    Recording:   ****/****
    Performance: ****/****

    During the Shostakovich centenary (2006), there were great opportunities to explore the composer’s vast output in addition to some new recordings of the symphonies.  Leading up to that time, a number of labels worked on producing recordings bringing a variety of lesser-known works into their catalogues.  Brilliant Classics basically is a label that is mining the Capriccio catalogue and in this case they have gone back to recordings released in 1998 from mid-1990s recordings made with Michail Jurowski and his Koln orchestra.

    The present release allows listeners to hear Shostakovich’s approach to text setting for male voices from both ends of his career.  The disc opens with one of his last works, the Suite on Verses by Michelangelo Buonarrotti, OP. 145a from 1974 in anticipation of the Tuscan artist’s 500th birthday year (1975).  First composed for bass and piano, Shostakovich then orchestrated these in the fall of 1974, though they would be premiered two months after his death the following year.  Certainly his own life is part of these interesting poetic choices dealing with themes of life and death, religion, crumbling morality, humanity, love and beauty.  The opening “Truth” is filled with this sense of darkness and perhaps a bit of cynicism in its angular lines.  A bit more beauty, though this too is tinged with sadness, appears in the following “Morning” with its shifts into slightly more traditional harmony.  Even “Love” feels a bit restrained in the solo part with interesting florid wind lines providing quick glimpses of joy.  An almost hymn-like section appears as well.  This carries through slightly in tone for “Separation.”  “Anger” kicks everything out of its lethargy with more intense brass writing and angst.  The most extensive of these songs is the central “Dante” with its texts honoring his life and work.  Here the music takes on sense of sardonic color at times with a great deal of dramatic emphasis reminiscent of the late symphonies.  The rough hammer of “Creativity” and at times more intense writing is equally fascinating.  The final poems on “Night”, “Death”, and “Immortality” (a most interestingly scored piece) certainly are intriguing essays by a composer perhaps casting an eye on his final days.  Fascinatingly, “Immortality” ends in a way that suggest it could go on forever.  Anatoli Kotscherga’s bass is striking in these performances providing a richness and depth of emotion while still letting the text speak for itself.  He has some amazing controlled decrescendos.

    Back in 1936, Shostakovich planned a set of songs based on the poetry of Alexander Pushkin to commemorate the poet’s death in 1837.  The results were three Romances, Op 46a composed on the heels of the condemnation of the composer’s opera Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk.  The pieces may very well be responses to the growing political pressure of the Stalinist government.  Musically, these settings bear a blend of romantic orchestration with more modern harmonic points.  The orchestra provides the emotional commentary and depth to the vocal line here sometimes taking on a brief motif.  The central “A Jealous Maiden” does have some beautiful writing.  Anatoli Babykin sometimes feels  a bit more operatic in these works though he captures much of the beauty in these lines while providing excellent diction and emotional power.

    The final work on the disc is a setting of Japanese poetry.  These Six Romances, Op. 21 were dedicated to his first wife Nora and reveal some of the emotional turmoil in the young composer from the early 1930s.  Some may see these pieces as being in a line going back to song cycles by Mussorgsky.  Here are pieces that feel a bit more like the modernist Shostakovich but also entering in are these more expressionist turns of phrase and yet an intriguing cohesion exists between these 6 poems set here.  Wladimir Kasatchuk has a gorgeous tenor voice and does a fine job with these pieces.

    Michail Jurowski is one of many fine Shostakovich interpreters.  The orchestra here does a great job of supporting each vocalist and they are recorded quite well to provide a natural feel to the performances captured here.  For an example of Shostakovich’s vocal writing outside of opera, one can certainly seek this disc out for a sample.