Sold Date: November 22, 2022
Start Date: October 15, 2022
Final Price: $51.45 (USD)
Seller Feedback: 9240
Buyer Feedback: 0

1982 Shostakovich Symphony No. 5 Haitink Concertgebouw Orchestra Vinyl LP Record VG+
Record Grade per Goldmine Standard: VG+ to NM
Shostakovich - Concertgebouw Orchestra, Bernard Haitink – Symphony No. 5
SIDE ONE 1.1st Movt.-Moderato (17:59) 2.2nd Movt-Allegretto (5:23) SIDE TWO 1.3rd Movt.-Largo (15:36) 2.4th Movt-Allegro non troppo (10:32) Shostakovich's First Symphony was written in an ac- cepted symphonic tradition. Indeed the composer con- sidered the work too traditional, and in the two 'modernist' symphonies which followed, he evolved a language derived in part from such composers as Bar- tok, Hindemith, Kfenek and Stravinsky. He cultivated a style of 'abstract experimentation,' as he later described it, a style characterized by dense textures, non-func- tional harmonies, and an absence of thematicism and thematic development. The Fourth Symphony is a tran- sitional work which attempts to reconcile traditional concepts of symphonic thought with some of the experi- mental features of the preceding two works. In the Fifth Symphony, which he wrote in 1937, Shostakovich re- turns to the tradition he followed in the First, while he preserves some of these startling features including un- expected turns of melody and harmony and highly indi- vidual scoring. Here, however, he invests them with far greater coherence and achieves far more telling effect. The doom-laden motto-theme which opens the sym- phony soon subsides, but the underlying unease does not disappear during the long, lyrical paragraphs of the exposition. With the beginning of the development the pace quickens, and as the atmosphere becomes ever more frenzied, fragments from melodic ideas originally lyrical in quality are thrown down, juxtaposed and run together, and the movement climaxes in a grotesque, Mahlerian, march. The movement brakes, as it were, to achieve control, and grinds its way back to the opening material, achieving stillness, but not serenity. The second movement is a wry Scherzo, predominantly heavy and shrill. The contrasting sparseness of texture of the trio together with the burlesque of the solo violin and its ac- companying primitive harmonies serve to reinforce the disturbing quality of the main part of the movement The slow movement is a brooding Largo. Its long lines create a feeling of melancholy by their very length, un- broken by regular cadences and wandering into regions of ill-defined tonality. The scoring of the movement has a chamber-music-like quality: it ends with a melody on harp harmonics doubled by celesta, and at its searing cli- max, piano, xylophone, high strings and piccolo recall sounds in the 'modernist'symphonies. The last move- ment is fierce and there is desperation in the sweep of its first half, after which it subsides only to be whipped up again and to end in a blaring D major. This hollow close is not a resolution but only emphasizes the emptiness and despair which pervade the whole symphony. In its outline the work follows the nineteenth century symphonies deriving from Beethoven's Fifth which traced a progression from conflict to triumphant apoth- eosis. Shostakovich himself at the time of the first per- formance described the symphony as 'a Soviet artist's reply to just criticism,' the criticism being the notorious attack on his opera, Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk, which appeared in Pravda almost two years before this first performance. The authorities certainly expected their composers to produce works which were positive in tone. And this symphony stopped their criticism for a time at least. Maybe this is what they heard, a symphony both triumphant and optimistic. Late in life the com- poser expessed his own views: 'I think that it is clear to everyone what happens in the Fifth.........It's as if someone were beating you with a stick and saying, 'Your business is rejoicing, your business is rejoicing' and you rise, shakily, and go off muttering, 'Our business is rejoicing, our business is rejoicing.' Timothy Day Recorded May 1981 in the Concertgebouw, Amsterdam. Pro- ducer: Andrew Cornall. Engineer: Colin Moorfoot. © 1982 The Decca Record Co., Ltd. © 1982 The Decca Record Co., Ltd. Cover© 1982 London Records. Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 82-743346 applies to LDR 71051. Manufactured and marketed by London Records, a division of Polygram Classics, Inc., 137 Wfest 55th St, New York, N.Y. 10019. Distributed by Polygram Distribu- tion, Inc. Warning: All rights reserved. Unauthorized reproduc- tion is prohibited by law and may result in criminal prosecution.



LP597