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At Lucerne Festival: Shostakovich Symphony No. 8 [Import]

DVD
4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
Price: CDN$ 29.99 & this item ships for FREE with Super Saver Shipping. Details
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4.0 out of 5 stars The beauty of bleakness Oct 1 2012
By David M. Goldberg TOP 500 REVIEWER
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For 30 years, ever since I heard it played in the presence of the composer not long after its rehabilitation, I have come to regard this massive work as the pinnacle of his symphonic oeuvre. Unlike so many of its siblings, it is not an apology for a Soviet artist who has been led astray, or an anthem celebrating some triumph of Russian socialism, but a wrenching indictment of the repressive system he had to endure and an expression of the anguish that was his daily companion for the greater part of his creative life. In 5 movements, not all separated by a formal interval, and starting with a profound soul-searching Adagio, it moves on to a restless Allegretto with elements of a witches’ dance, and thence to an Allegro full of march-like rhythms and the most brutal cacophonies to be found in the composer’s repertoire, the Leningrad Symphony notwithstanding. The Passacaglia that follows has the calm bleakness of the Valley of Death, and the final Allegretto is the only one where the monolithic orchestra breaks up into individual instruments allowed to express some personal individuality before the sad slow ending that haunts the memory long after the last note has died into an eternal silence in which can yet be discerned the words of his memoir: “There were no particularly happy moments in my life, no great joys. It was grey and dull and it makes me sad to think about it.” Pretty dismal stuff? Ultimately no, because ---- make no mistake ----- this is among the greatest music of the 20th Century. It almost fits better into the canon of his string quartets than his symphonies that were largely showpieces for public consumption, often for party propaganda, with rousing good tunes for the workers and peasants to hum in their fields and factories. This, like his quartets, was written for himself and as a personal imperative. The structure and the melodic flow are clear and certainly not intimidating, but the introspection and self-analysis take some getting used to; once you do, the spiritual quality shines through like a beacon. Think of a late Rembrandt self-portrait, where the sheer honesty and craftsmanship converts what is intrinsically ugly into unparalleled poetical beauty. Nelsons and the Concertgebouw accomplish this very successfully, although I have heard better performances from the Leningrad Philharmonic (Mravinsky) and the National Symphony (Rostropovich) on CD. The sound quality is very satisfactory, Stereo being better than Surround on my system, and the camera work is very impressive. It is a pleasure to see this great orchestra in the fine Lucerne auditorium rather than their barn of a home in Amsterdam. One thing niggled me about the young conductor Andris Nelsons. Much of his stick technique is borrowed from his mentor, Mariss Jansons, which is no bad thing, but he has also borrowed the smile that adorns Jansons’ face only when he is trying to jolly up the orchestra, whereas Nelsons wears it from beginning to end. Put it down to the youthful exhuberance of a 32-year-old, but it does detract from the seriousness of his approach to this grimly uncompromising music. The Rienzi Overture and Salome’s Dance of the Seven Veils that initiate the program are well enough played, but the latter loses a lot of its musical and sex appeal when it is divorced from the actual opera.
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Amazon.com: 4.2 out of 5 stars  4 reviews
5 of 6 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars another wonderful evening of music Jun 2 2012
By John E. Martell Jr. - Published on Amazon.com
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Once you recover from the disorientation of Maestro Abbado not walking out to meet his Lucerne Festival Orchestra and audience, you are in for another wonderful evening of music. And it is a disorientation for one who has watched every Lucerne Festival production on DVD, many times over, under the baton of one of our greatest living conductors. But don't despair. You will still recognize the principle trombone and oboe as very familiar faces.

I cannot really add anything of value to the excellent reviews by Mr Knapp and Mr Goodwin, but would like to support their reviews with another five stars. The orchestra is genuinely world class, and it is wonderful to see so many great female artists playing so intensely, as you do with the Lucerne orchestra. Nelsons is as good or better than the publicity about him: there is no doubt about his musical talent and sensitivity, and the program superb, though it is really the Shostakovitch that is the gem of the evening. I don't think you will hear a better recording, though the CD recordings of Haitink, Gergiev, and Mravinsky are all very fine. This is Shostakovitch at his best, in my opinion. And the ovations at the end of the performance say it all better than I am able to to do here in a few lines.

If you are an avid Lucerne Festival fan, as so many of us are, you will want to get this recording. I am about to order Nelsons conducting Beethoven and Rimsky-Kosakov at the Lucerne Festival, which has just been released and favorably reviewed as well.

PS. You will also not want to miss Maestro Abbado's Bruckner 5, which is now available too.
5.0 out of 5 stars SIMPLY WONDERFULSHOSTAKOVICH 8TH Sep 18 2012
By ALBERT - Published on Amazon.com
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ONE OF THE GREATEST SYMPHONIES OF THE 20TH CENTURY ANBD THIS PERFORMANCE IS SHATTERING IN IT'S POWER.i HAVEN'T HAD TIME TO LISTEN TO MORE THAN THE LONG FIRST MOVT/. yET bUT I HAVE HEARD ENOUGH TO HEAR THAT THIS CONDUCTOR, OF WHOME i HAVE NEVER HEARD, IS SUPERLATIVE IN HIS INSIGHT INTO THIS GREAT WORK AND i CAN'T WAIT TO LISTEN TO THE REST OF THE SYMPHONY WHICH SEEMS TO ENCAPSULATE THE ZEITGEIST OF THE CENTURY WITH ALL ITS HORRORS AND TRAGEDY. aN INCREDIBLE WORK AND A PERFECT PERFORMANCE.tHE CAMERA WORK IS ALSO WONDERFUL.aND WHAT AN ORCHESTRA IS THE CONCERTGEBOUW !!.
1 of 2 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars Great Music, Funny Images Feb 7 2013
By Donald Waits - Published on Amazon.com
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The performances on this DVD are superb and I have no quibbles about tempo, etc., that others have pointed out. I would say that this should not have been released as a DVD, but CD only. Why? Because the facial expressions of the conductor are most distracting, so much so I found them rather funny. His little grins struck me a a bit manic, rather than encouraging to the performers. I so wanted to give this 5 stars, but could not because of this one intrusive aspect. Some time ago this orchestra was designated as the top organization in European orchestras, and rightly so. Perhaps I am missing something since the players obviously enjoyed playing for this conductor. It is refreshing to see classical musicians as human beings rather than automatons (as in the Vienna Philharmonic). The DVD experience has been, for me, at least, the only way to actually BE at a live event, albeit a filmed concert. I own literally hundreds of concert DVDs and have enjoyed most of them enormously. The technology has come a long way from the early VHS versions, both in imaging and sound. There are precious few DVD presentations of Shostakovich symphonies and I thoroughly enjoyed this one...with the exception mentioned above. I would encourage anyone to acquire this DVD for the music alone. Feel free to disregard my absence of one star.
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