SHOSTAKOVICH: SYMPHONY 1 & SYMPHONY 3 - USSR MINISTRY OF CULTURE, ROZHDESTVENSKY

Shostakovich: Symphonies 1 & 3 (‘1st of May’)

USSR Ministry of Culture
Symphony Orchestra
Gennadi Rozhdestvensky

(Sym.1) “a good performance, with a strong feeling of chamber music to it and a remarkable attention to (occasionally exaggeration of) the quieter dynamic markings (Sym.3) “a much better recorded account of the Third Symphony, is brilliantly played and very vividly characterized . I was particularly struck by Rozhdestvensky’s use of solo instead of tutti strings in the slow section (with what justification I have no idea , but it is poignantly effective) and by his powerful dramatization of those huge orchestral recitatives that prepare for the choral finale: they are massively and balefully eloquent, qualities that rivals miss by taking them very fast.” (Gramophone)

Symphony No. 1 in F minor, Op. 10
[1] I. Allegro – Allegro non troppo
[2] II. Allegro
[3] III. Lento
[4] IV. Lento – Allegro molto – Largo – Presto

Symphony No. 3 in E flat major, Op. 20 ‘The First of May’
(‘Pervomayskaya’) Words from original poem by S. Kirsanov
[5] Allegretto – Allegro
[6] Andante