Recent reviews

Wayne Shorter: Speak No Evil

Winter Whispers: Ukrainian Piano Tales - Petrychenko

Telemann: 12 Fantasias for Viola - Bryła

Miles Davis: Seven Steps to Heaven

Recent comments

Mahler: Symphony No. 8 - Vänskä | Gurkensalat - December 4, 2023

I am just picking this high profile release because I could not find the prior discussion about BIS and Apple anymore. I just discovered, that Bis seems to be constructing a ...

Steely Dan: Countdown to Ecstasy | Downunderman - December 2, 2023

This SACD is noticeably different in many respects to the pretty much universally highly regarded SACD released in Japan back in 2014 as Analogue's review ...

Knaggs: Two Streams - Simpson | Marcus DiBenedetto - November 29, 2023

Divine Mercy is the theme of this Cantata. Youthful composer Daniel Knaggs (b. 1983) wrote the music based partly on the spiritually inspired writings of Maria Faustina ...

Van Morrison: Moondance | Kveld-Úlfr - December 5, 2023

Lots of interesting remixes and versions indeed. However, to me the previous version (BD-A + CDs) did not seem to be a "very expensive" item at the time, as I had acquired it ...

Thelonious Monk: Solo Monk | aubullience - Today 08:36 am

Caveat Emptor- while Monk's playing on this disc is exemplary, as one would expect, in my systems the sound of the issue has a very marked stridency in the mid-treble range, ...

Van Morrison: Moondance | Kveld-Úlfr - November 30, 2023

What's more to this than the already existing Van Morrison: Moondance then ?

Van Morrison: Moondance | Warren Ogden - December 5, 2023

The previous blu-ray was only available as part of a very expensive box set, whereas this one is available as a very affordable stand-alone release.

John Prine: John Prine | Steven Harrison - December 5, 2023

I have this one now. I have listened to this recording for over 50 years on LP and CD. It never ever sounded as good as this sacd does. This is living proof that everything ...

Shostakovich: Symphony No. 11 - Storgårds

Chandos CHSA 5278

Stereo/Multichannel Hybrid

Classical - Orchestral

Shostakovich: Symphony No. 11

BBC Philharmonic
John Storgårds, conductor

1905 was a year of revolutionary upheaval in pre-Soviet Russia. Shostakovich based this work on the events of one episode of that year, when thousands of workers and their families converged on the Winter Palace in St Petersburg to petition the Tsar over their working and living conditions. The Tsar had been advised to leave, no-one was there to accept the petition, and the authorities resorted to cavalry charges to disperse the crowd. With 200 dead and 500 wounded, this incident damaged the Tsar’s reputation and flamed the fire of revolution in the masses. Whether the work was intended as a politically correct commemoration to please his Soviet paymasters, or actually as a commentary on the 1956 Hungarian uprising, remains under debate. There is no doubt, however, that this majestic score, almost filmic in its conception, remains a milestone in Shostakovich’s output.

The BBC Philharmonic under John Storgards captures the tremendous intensity of the work in this SURROUND SOUND hybrid SACD recording. For perhaps the first time for sixty years, this recording uses four church bells, on loan from the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, rather than the standard orchestral tubular bells. Church bells may be heard on the earliest recording of the Eleventh Symphony, by the Leningrad Philharmonic Orchestra under Yevgeny Mravinsky in 1959, and may therefore be presumed to have the composer’s approval. John Storgards has chosen to let them ring on after the end of the work, an option also favoured in performance by Mstislav Rostropovich.

Support this site by purchasing from these vendors using the paid links below.
As an Amazon Associate HRAudio.net earns from qualifying purchases.