Dmitri Shostakovich: Symphonies 6 and 9 (Philharmonia Data)
★★★★☆
4 months in the past, I wrote about one of many least satisfying Shostakovich information I’ve ever heard, a efficiency the place the conductor, a hyped younger Finn, skied throughout the musical floor with out penetration or strategic idea. The gloom that overwhelmed me on the onset of a full cycle of symphonies from this unprepared interpreter has since been mitigated barely by the emergence of a parallel cycle from a Finnish compatriot, Santtu-Matias Rouvali.
Turning 40 this yr, Rouvali is the music director of the Philharmonia Orchestra in London and a protracted shot to be the subsequent chief in San Francisco or Los Angeles. These symphonies play to his strengths — uncanny management of dynamics, filigree color modifications and a grasp of symphonic structure that’s unusual amongst hot-shot baton wavers.
The sixth symphony, written on both aspect of the Second World Conflict, defied Kremlin expectations. The sixth opens with a morbid quotation from Mahler’s tenth, continuing by way of a motion of dangerous jokes to a heart-racing, helter-skelter conclusion. The ninth refused to point out exaltation at Stalin’s victory over Hitler. The symphonies specific a cussed detachment from exterior agendas. That’s their enduring relevance.
Many conductors wrestle to steadiness the historic narrative with the current time. Not Rouvali. Tamping down undercurrents of tension, he lets the music unfold as a narrative of on a regular basis life in a terror state, a lot of it mundane, at instances mortally thrilling. What I like greatest in Rouvali is his calculated distance from exaggeration. The second motion of the ninth symphony, marked ‘moderato’, is a masterclass in warning. Its managed pressure rattled the fillings in my tooth.
These imaginative performances are fantastically executed by a pedigree London orchestra. Rouvali is the alternative of a roller-coaster conductor. He could by no means see his face blazoned on billboards. However he’s very a lot a maestro for our instances, immersed in musical thought. He must be a contender for these orchestras that also put music first.
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Norman Lebrecht is without doubt one of the most widely-read commentators on music, tradition and cultural politics. He’s an everyday presenter on BBC Radio 3 and a contributor to the Wall Road Journal, Bloomberg, Standpoint, Sinfini and different publications. His weblog, Slipped Disc, is among the many most generally learn cultural websites on-line, breaking unique tales and campaigning in opposition to human abuse and acts of injustice within the cultural industries.
