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Dmitri Shostakovich: Symphony No. 15 / From Jewish Folk Poetry - Bernard Haitink | 
 enlarge | Artists: Dmitri Shostakovich, Elisabeth Soderstrom, Ortrun Wenkel, Ryszard Karczykowski, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Bernard Haitink
Label: Decca
Category: Music
List Price: $11.98
Buy New: $6.25
You Save: $5.73 (48%)
New (32) Used (12) from $5.55
Rating:  5 reviews
Sales Rank: 165252
Format: Original Recording Reissued
Media: Audio CD
Discs: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 5.6 x 5 x 0.5
MPN: 425069
UPC: 028942506923
EAN: 0028942506923
ASIN: B00000IP3B
Release Date: August 8, 2000
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Shipping: International shipping available
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| Tracks:
| • | Allegretto | | • | Adagio-Lento-Adagio | | • | Allegretto | | • | Adagio-Allegretto | | • | No. 1, "Lament for a dead infant" for soprano & alto | | • | No. 2, "The solicitous mother and aunt" for soprano & alto | | • | No. 3, "Lullaby: Little son, my fairest" for alto | | • | No. 4, "Before a long separation" for soprano & tenor | | • | No. 5, "Warning" for soprano | | • | No. 6, "The abandoned father" for alto & tenor | | • | No. 7, "Song of want" for tenor | | • | No. 8, "Winter" for soprano, alto, tenor | | • | No. 9, "The good life" for tenor | | • | No. 10, "Song of the young girl" for soprano | | • | No. 11, "Good fortune" for soprano, alto, tenor |
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| Customer Reviews:
 Top-Notch Recording January 31, 2008
D. A Wend (Buffalo Grove, IL USA)
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
I still have the LP of the world premiere recording of Dmitri Shostakovich's 15th symphony, which has unfortunately not been issued of CD. I have other recording of the symphony, notably Kirill Kondrashin's with the Moscow Philharmonic; I wanted to listen to the Bernard Haitink recording following a glowing review in the January, 2008 Gramophone, and I must agree that this is among the finest recording of this work.
The Fifteenth was written in 1971 and in mood is a descendant of the Ninth Symphony. Maestro Haitink adopts an even and considered tempo throughout the performance that places brings this intricate music into sharp focus. Shostakovich wrote for the orchestra, utilizing an expanded percussion section, in a very original way, mixing various motifs from other sources. He also deploys the orchestra quite differently mixing the percussion into the orchestra to create a jarring sound world; an example are the ending bars with the percussion array of wood block, tympani, triangle, bells castanets and tom-tom. Probably the most easily recognized motif is the William Tell music (in the first movement) and Fate music from Wagner's Gotterdammerung (in the final movement). Also in the final movement, Shostakovich introduces the Prelude from Tristan and Isolde and quickly shifts to a Glinka song "Do not tempt me needlessly."
The motifs are skillfully worked into the music and do not dominate as much as illuminate the music. Shostakovich also pushes the instruments to extraordinary limits, as with the cello solo at the start of the second movement that begins in the lowest registers of the instrument; the extended trombone solo in the second movement is mournful and the bassoon in the third is sinister. The music is enigmatic and difficult for an orchestra to bring off successfully. Whatever program Dmitri Shostakovich had in mind for his music it was certainly more complicated than can be derived from mere listening, and music should not need a program to be understood, so it is just as well to sit back and enjoy without wondering if Shostakovich really meant the first movement to describe a toy shop.
The Fifteenth is paired with the From Jewish Folk Poetry in the orchestrated version of 1964. The soloists - Elizabeth Soderstrom, Ortrun Wenkel and Ryszard Karczykowski are magnificent and the voices of Ms. Soderstrom and Ms. Wenkel blend so beautifully together in the first and second songs. Mr. Karczykowski sings beautifully and is perfectly expressive in "The deserted father" and tackles the difficulties of "A song of poverty" with gusto. From Jewish Folk Poetry is a colorful cycle that is unfortunately not recorded too often. The Concertgebouw play with great feeling and the recording is well balanced and clear. This is a must-have disc for anyone interested in Shostakovich's music.
A high point in Haitink's cycle January 14, 2007
Santa Fe listener
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
Shostakovich, like his friend Benjamin Britten, worte in a more austere, often bleak style toward the end of his life, and both composers, while never fully abandoning tonality, were at times so crytpic that they might have been writing for themselves. The Shostakovich 15th Sym., here given a very sympathetic reading by Hiatink in excellent, vivid sound, stands out for its melody and pathos. The quotations from Tristan, Wiliam Tell, etc. are considered cryptic, but there's no reason to be mystified. Collage is a familiar musical technique, and Shostakovich, whose musings on mortality may have awakened old memories of Wanger and Rossini simply because he loved them, embedded all the quotations in original settings.
Audiences tend to like the Fifteenth, and Haitink makes it even more accessible by underplaying the moments of bleakness and irony. That's consistent--his Shostakovich cyle was Middle European in style rather than Soviet. For more bite and depth, turn to Kurt Sanderling in his famous reading with the Cleveland Orch., but there's room for Haitink's reading, which is very well played by the London Phil., an orchestra for whim he had a great deal of affection.
Russia has a shameful streak of anti-Semitism in its history, and although the Soviet Union officially banned such things, Shostakovich confronted the authorities with their hypocrisy in a series of daring works, including Sym. 13 'Babi Yar' and the Piano Quintet, with its Jewish folk quotations in the finale. Here he turns to a volume of fok poetry that he found during the war. alarmed by the treatment of Jedws under Stalin, he devised simple melodies for these 11 songs, written in 1948 but not premiered until after Stalin's death five years later. The tunes are often doleful and seem authentically Jewish, even though they are original to Shostakovich. The performers do an exemplary job here.
In all, this last installment in Haitink's cycle is also one of its high points.
A Fine Shostakovich Symphony No. 15 and a Rare Bonus November 14, 2005
Grady Harp (Los Angeles, CA United States)
9 out of 9 found this review helpful
Shostakovich's Symphony No. 15 has always polarized audiences, even those who are committed admirers of his music. Some find the quotations from Rossini and Wagner intrusive and facetious if not cheap, while others (this listener for one) have grown into this magnificent elegy by the tortured Shostakovich and consider it one his greatest achievements. Bernard Haitink and the London Philharmonic Orchestra give a sparkling account of the work and while it does not have the ultimate pathos of, say the Rostropovich approach, the overall arc of the symphony is well thought and the inner components of the orchestral playing are superb.
While it is never fair to compare a recorded version with a live performance, having just had the joy of hearing young Russian conductor Andrey Boreyko guest conduct the LA Philharmonic in what seems to be the definitive performance of this great work only serves notice that we have a new Shostakovich expert rising in the ranks. Hopefully he will survey all 15 symphonies on recordings!
Symphony No 15 has everything Shostakovich did best in orchestration - pairing pizzicato strings against woodwind and brass choirs, embellishing sustained string chordal clouds with tinkling percussive instruments of every description, heavily grounded deep strings and tubas with solo instrument 'riffs', and above all creating occult messages about his personal conviction within the framework of the music. This symphony, being his last, ends with a movement based on the fate motif of Wagner exhaling to the final pages of soft high percussion ticking away at the clock of life that finally ends in death. It is overwhelmingly touching.
Haitink conducts the Concertbegouw Orchestra in 'From Jewish Folk Poetry', a rarely heard, completely apropos companion piece for this recording. Soloists Elisabeth Soderstrom, Ortrun Wenkel, and Ryszard Karczykowski breathe life into these works and offer us a side of Shostakovich for the most part unknown to audiences, at least in this country. This additional work more than justifies choosing this CD to add the 15th to your library. Highly recommended. Grady Harp, November 05
 An awfully primitive symphony, and a daring song cycle April 29, 2005
Christopher Culver
5 out of 20 found this review helpful
This Decca disc is the last in the series of Shostakovich's symphonies conducted by Bernard Haitink. It includes the composer's final symphony, the 15th, performed by the London Philharmonic, and the disc is filled out with his series "From Jewish Folk Poetry" performed by the Concertgebouw.
"Symphony No. 15" (1971) is, like the 14th, clearly inspired by the ageing composer's knowledge of his own mortality. However, while the 14th was concerned with the terror and inevitability of death, the 15th is a retrospective examination of the composer's whole life. It's opening movement with its evocations of toys and games is meant to represent childhood and the occasional appearance of the "William Tell Overture" speaks something about the innocence of youth. The subsequent plethora of quotations from earlier works summaries the composer's career. Those familiar with Shostakovich's work will notice bits here from nearly all his symphonies, such as the elegant inclusion of the DSCH motif from the 10th. There are also quotations from Wagner, Mahler, and Tchaikovsky.
I find this work quite disappointing. By the early seventies, serialism and other modern techniques were well-known in the Soviet Union, even if facing official disapproval. In the previous decade other Soviet composers like Part and Gubaidulina had already made use of this progress in music. Shostakovich, however, continues to write with the same tools he always has, even though this is now historically superseded. It's not bad music, in fact it is quite pleasant and entertaining, but there is little original insight. The work also seems to lose energy towards the end, with the third and fourth movements being quite lethargic, though this may be Haitink's fault.
"From Jewish Folk Poetry" for soloists and piano (1948) was a daring work, written just as Stalin was considering a series of pogroms against the Jews which would be as terrible as anything done in Nazi Germany. For a composer to show solidarity with these persecuted people, especially after his second official condemnation, is a display of the greatest courage. The songs are filled with tragedy, as is evident with titles such as "The Lament for a Dead Baby", "Before a Long Parting", "The Abandoned Father", "The Song of Misery". The closing piece is the absurdly ironic "The Good Life". Shostakovich seems to have wisely chosen to let the words of the songs carry the message and keep only a minimum of orchestration for the sake of variety. The soloists here are Elisabeth Soderstrom and Ortrun Wenkel and, while their performances are satisfactory, I have never been happy with the quality of this recording, which makes all the instrumental forces seem packed together.
All in all, the 15th isn't as impressive as most of the composer's earlier works and seems crippled by the limitations of its musical language. The song cycle, on the other hand, is an elegant piece worth hearing. If you haven't heard any of Decca's Shostakovich series with Haitink conducting, try the disc with the 5th and 9th, or the disc with the morbid but fascinating 14th filled out with the great song cycle from poems of Tsvetaeva.
A sane approach April 10, 2003
P. SIMPSON (North Yorkshire, United Kingdom)
You dont go to Haitink for extremes or quirkiness, so it may seem odd to recommend his recording of a work which some other conductors play as if it was the epitome of irony and quirkiness. But, just as his Mahler 6th of the early sixties offered a truly symphonic and comprehensible picture of that dark and tragic work, so this Shostakovich 15th brings us profundity mixed with tenderness viewed through sanity. And its that very sanity, which some critics (e.g. the authors of the Good CD Guide) deride, which makes the ethereal ending of the 15th so moving and yet so understandable, so human and universal in a way which more obviously edgy performances can't do. The sound is equally analytical and clear, both involving and yet also distancing in exactly the way the symphony is. There is a place for white-hot Shostakovitch interpretations, especially in the 15th, but there is also a place for this pensive and profoundly human one.
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