Composer: Dmitri Shostakovich
Performer: Shenyang, Mari Palo, Tuomas Katajala, Latvian State Choir
Orchestra: Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra
Conductor: Vladimir Ashkenazy
Format: FLAC (tracks)
Label: Ondine
Catalogue: ODE1225-2
Release: 2013
Size: 0.99 GB
Recovery: +3%
Scan: yes
01. The Execution of Stepan Razin, Op. 119
Zoya Suite, Op. 64a (arr. L. Atovmyan for orchestra)
02. I. Song about Zoya
03. II. Military Problem
04. III. Tragedy of a Loss
05. IV. Hero’s Victory
06. V. The Heroine’s Immortality
Suite on Finnish Themes
07. I. Energico
08. II. The Sky is Blue and White
09. III. Lento non troppo
10. IV. The Girls of this Village
11. V. The Strawberry is a Red Berry
12. VI. If I could be at Leisure
13. VII. My Beloved is Beautiful
Ondine presents two dramatic works by Shostakovich. The Execution of Stepan Razin is spine-chilling with Razin’s bloody head rolling to the ground, laughing at the Tsar, and the Zoya Suite which is an orchestral abridgement of the film score from 1944 depicting the 18-year old partisan Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya fighting against the Germans.
These works are coupled with the relatively unknown Suite on Finish Themes. Discovered nearly 40 years after Shostakovich’s death the suite includes several arrangements of Finnish folk songs arranged for Soprano and Tenor soloists.
The Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra regularly record with Ondine and have many awards and prizes to their name. Ashkenazy has worked regularly with the orchestra on past releases and continues to be an inspiration to music lovers across the world.
The continuing growth in interest in the music of Dmitry Shostakovich has led to major recordings even of works that haven’t been played much since they received their premieres in the composer’s immediate circle. The first two works on this Finnish release might fit that category; the final Suite on Finnish Themes is still rarer, having only recently been rediscovered. The two larger works might be paired with symphonies that were contemporary with them and could easily make companion pieces for those symphonies in concert. The Execution of Stepan Razin for bass, chorus, and orchestra, Op. 119, was composed in 1964. Its symphonic cousin is the Symphony No. 13 (“Babi Yar”), composed on texts by Yevgeny Yevtushenko. The text of this cantata was from a later set of poems by Yevtushenko, who by that time, in the more restrictive atmosphere that followed the overthrow of Nikita Khrushchev, had fallen into disfavor. Shostakovich, however, was more or less untouchable, and furthermore there is nothing in the score to offend socialist-realist orthodoxy: the work is a blood-and-guts action cantata, complete with rolling severed head à la Symphonie fantastique. It would make any audience sit up and take notice on a program of Russian music. The Zoya Suite, from 1944, consists of selections from a partly lost film score about the Soviet war effort against Nazi Germany. The relevant symphony here is No. 7, but the work is even more conservative in style, as are most of Shostakovich’s film scores. The music has a genuine sense of simple tragedy, however, and it’s unlike anything else in the composer’s oeuvre. The Suite on Finnish Themes is simpler still; it is essentially a group of folk song settings. In no way is this collection a cornerstone Shostakovich release, yet there isn’t a dull moment on it, and Vladimir Ashkenazy, leading the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, a Latvian choir, and a stellar trio of soloists including the sensational single-named Chinese bass-baritone Shenyang, is clearly having fun with the project. Recommended for Shostakovich lovers.