Those who have purchased the earlier two SACD releases in Mark Wigglesworth’s on-going survey of the Shostakovich symphonies for BIS will already be aware of their excellent qualities. Wigglesworth adopts a thoughtful and serious approach to these works and his conducting, eschewing any flashiness or element of interpretive hubris, goes straight to the heart of the music.

The SACD catalogue is not short of good performances of the 9th Symphony, but this one is quite outstanding thanks to this conductor’s clear-sighted vision of the piece. The opening of the first movement immediately impresses with its buoyant rhythms and crisp orchestral playing, particularly from the splendid woodwind and brass sections of the excellent Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra, while the following Moderato flows gently at Wiggleworth’s tempo, avoiding any heaviness or tendency to drag. A similar lightness and delicacy extends to the start of the Presto which then explodes at (1.10) with the most brilliant and authentically Russian sounding trumpet playing imaginable. The lamenting bassoon solo of the Largo, played with much sensitivity by Jos Lammerse, and its gradual emergence into the final movement of the symphony is handled with much wit. In the accompanying booklet notes, written by the conductor, Wigglesworth refers to the playfulness of the music as ‘nose thumbing of a court jester’ and this is exactly how it emerges here.

Symphony No. 12 ‘The Year 1917’ is often dismissed as Shostakovich’s weakest symphony, a mere piece of Soviet propaganda, but, as expected, Wigglesworth treats it seriously and in this very exciting performance it gains immeasurably in stature emerging as a much finer work than many critics would have you believe.

The opening of ‘Revolutionary Petrograd’ on the lower strings is steady and slightly understated rather than epic, but Wigglesworth then screws up the tension bringing the movement to a thrilling climax. ‘Razliv’ is played with intense feeling, which provides the opportunity for some wonderfully expressive playing from individual members of the wind section of this fine orchestra. The interchanges between pizzicato strings and timpani at the start of ‘Aurora’ are astonishingly clear and well defined and the conductor builds this movement to an overwhelmingly savage climax with a massive onslaught of timpani and percussion, reproduced here with stunning impact. In the final movement, ‘The Dawn of Humanity’, Wigglesworth’s slow-burn approach again pays dividends and the powerful coda, which can appear as overblown and bombastic, here emerges with both elemental power and nobility.

In both symphonies the BIS 5.0 recording is absolutely magnificent and captures the full dynamic range of the music, from the quietest string pianissimos to the loudest percussion onslaughts, with astonishing fidelity. It is recorded at a slightly lower level than some other versions of these symphonies, so to appreciate its exceptional quality to the full, it may be necessary to increase the volume control a little.

I hope that we will not have to wait too long for the next issue in this invigorating cycle.

Copyright © 2007 Graham Williams and HRAudio.net

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