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 500^th 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.

Shostakovich: The Execution of Stepan Razin/Zoya Suite; Suite on Finnish Themes
Shenyang, bass-baritone.  Mari Palo, soprano. Tuomas Katajala, tenor.
Latvia State Chorus, Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra/Vladimir Ashkenazy
Ondine1225
Total Time:  65:55
Recording:   ****/****
Performance: ****/****

Vladimir Ashkenazy has somewhat disappeared from the American music scene and recorded releases, though he has made appearances in Cleveland and San Francisco.  His unique programs of rarer Shostakovich works tend to bring these lesser heard pieces to new audiences and the present release includes three such selections, two of which are quite rare—including selections to a 1930s film, Zoya.  These are each unique works of which the opening piece is the more well known, but this program is a very interesting one with great performances to boot.

The disc opens with The Execution of Stepan Razin.  The cantata tells of a 17^th century uprising and uses texts by Yevgeny Yevtushenko who also provided texts for the thirteenth symphony (Babi Yar).  Of course, the short thaw in Soviet politics that had allowed the composer some artistic freedom would essentially come crashing down after these works were completed.  Yevtushenko chose texts from his collection of poetry called Bratskaya and the sections for the present work take place in 1671 depicting the execution of the Cossak leader, Stenka Razin (whose name Shostakovich changed to be more representative of the people).  The work creates a dialogue of sorts between its bass soloist and the chorus, though the chorus serves also to chronicle action as well.  The reception to the first performance in December 1964 was mixed and the piece did not receive another performance until1966, later awarded the USSR State Prize (showing a relaxation again towards Shostakovich politically).

In this recording, one is overcome by the great imaging of the chorus and orchestra, some of which is do to Shostakovich’s brilliant orchestration as well.  The soloist is brought forward some, but it feels and sounds fine (mostly because the musical accompaniment tends to thin out when the soloist appears).  The Helsinki Orchestra is on great display in this work with crisp attacks and great clarity in this score.  You can hear a great many orchestral details in this performance.  Shenyang has a beautiful low register and diction is also quite good.  The booklet includes the texts though more by section than in the actual alternation.  It is best to hear the work as a whole and return to follow more closely a second time to get the full drama of the work.

There have been a number of releases featuring Shostakovich’s film music, often in excellently restored scores with great performances to boot.  Zoya is a lesser known film produced in 1944 and directed by the composer’s friend Lev Arnshtam.  The story is about a young partisan, Zoya, and his fight against the Germans.  There were some 35 scenes with about 20 still preserved and Lev Atomvyan took five of these to create the present suite, adding a chorus to the opening movement.  There are a couple of quotes included in this music to help connect the audiences more emotionally.  One of these is the use of Russian folk tunes, the Communist International for the opening bars of the “March,” and Glinka’s revolutionary music from A Life for the Tsar, namely the “Glory” chorus .  The third movement “Prelude” is an orchestration of the composer’s Prelude in Eb-minor, Op. 34.  The musical language of the score is a far cry from that of the opening work tending to be a bit more traditional in its style, but with plenty of great signature moments fitting the composer’s more popular works.  This can be heard in the second movement “Combat Mission” scene with its gorgeous lyrical melodic content alongside the fast-paced sections.  It is also intriguing to hear some of the harmonic progressions Shostakovich uses in this otherwise “safer” orchestral music that at times may seem almost Hollywood-like at times.  There is some excellent dramatic underscoring at work here making one long to hear what the complete score really sounded like.  The clarity of the recording though helps bring this work its great power especially in the huge climactic moments in what is certainly another of the great highlights of this album.

Shostakovich arranged a great deal of folk music throughout his career, often incorporating these tunes into the fabric of his concert work.  The Suite on Finnish Themes is one of these forgotten works, mentioned in a letter from 1939, but essentially forgotten.  There are seven movements which do not mention titles or even which soloist is intended for the sung texts.  Both soloists provide beautifully-shaped performances here and are captured in a similar way to that in the opening work.  The musical language is even more traditional here than in the previous two works even for the late 1930s, but that simply makes this collection of pieces a bit of icing on an already great musical cake.  Finnish listeners will likely recognize the folk songs Shostakovich uses in this work.

The present release brings together three interesting works that will be of interest to those who appreciate Shostakovich’s music.  There are 5 other recordings of the cantata currently in the catalog, ( fine one with Gerard Schwarz from his Delos days with the Seattle Symphony was reissued recently by Naxos).  This appears to be the only modern recording currently of music from the whole Zoya suite, with an earlier one conducted by noted Shostakovich film scholar Walter Mnatsakanov; though Ondine’s sound and the Helsinki orchestra are many cuts above that release’s more historical value.  The suite that closes the album has appeared before as well.  Ondine’s sound here is up to the label’s standards with crisp realization of the orchestral sound.  Ashkenazy is one of the better conductors in this repertoire and his leadership no doubt has brought the ensemble here to an appreciation of these rare works.  Highly recommended for those continuing to fill in their Shostakovich collections.