Dmitri Shostakovich - Symphony No. 15 (Kurt Sanderling; Cleveland Orchestra)

Information

Composer: Dmitri Shostakovich

1. Symphony No. 15 in A major, Op. 141: I. Allegretto
2. Symphony No. 15 in A major, Op. 141: II. Adagio
3. Symphony No. 15 in A major, Op. 141: III. Allegretto
4. Symphony No. 15 in A major, Op. 141: IV. Adagio

Cleveland Orchestra
Kurt Sanderling, conductor
Date: 1992
Label: Erato

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Review

PERFORMANCE: ***** / SOUND: *****

Shostakovich’s last symphony, No. 15, remains an enigma. With its quotations from Rossini, Wagner, Mahler and Shostakovich himself, is it a reflection on human existence, a bizarre picture of Soviet totalitarianism or a memorial to Russia’s war dead? Explanations remain unsatisfactory, perhaps because it is a masterpiece and not so easily defined. That it is a profoundly tragic work is underlined in the account from Sanderling and the Cleveland Orchestra. If the first movement with its repeated William Tell tune is a representation of childhood, as has been suggested, it is a childhood shot through with nightmares. And the death-shrouded second and last movements, with their references to the Fate motif and Siegfried’s Funeral March from Wagner’s Ring, are not just sombre but heart-rending. The solo and duo contributions of cello, violin, tuba and trombone reflect almost painfully raw emotion and there is a cumulative inevitability that binds the symphony’s disparate elements into a thoroughly convincing whole. Against this, Ashkenazy’s well-played, superbly recorded and generously coupled account barely scratches the surface. The lack of any coupling on the Erato disc is positively mean, but there’s no question that the Sanderling version is an altogether deeper and more rewarding experience.

-- David Michaels, BBC Music Magazine

More reviews:
https://www.amazon.com/Shostakovich-Symphony-No-15-Dmitri/dp/B000009JNB

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Dmitri Shostakovich (25 September 1906 – 9 August 1975) was a Russian composer and pianist, and a prominent figure of 20th-century music. Shostakovich achieved fame in the Soviet Union, but later had a complex and difficult relationship with the government. Shostakovich's music is characterized by sharp contrasts, elements of the grotesque, and ambivalent tonality; the composer was also heavily influenced by the neo-classical style pioneered by Igor Stravinsky, and (especially in his symphonies) by the post-Romanticism associated with Gustav Mahler.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dmitri_Shostakovich

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Kurt Sanderling (19 September 1912 – 17 September 2011) was a German Jewish conductor. He fled the Nazi in 1936, left for Soviet Union. From 1942 to 1960, he was joint principal conductor with Yevgeny Mravinsky of the Leningrad Philharmonic. He was also a close friend of Dmitri Shostakovich. He returned to East Germany where he led the Berlin Symphony Orchestra and Dresden Staatskapelle. He made his British debut in 1970 and later became particularly associated with the Philharmonia Orchestra. Sanderling announced his retirement from conducting in 2002. His three sons are also conductors.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kurt_Sanderling

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