Composer: Dmitri Shostakovich
Performer: Elizabeth Atherton, Peter Rose, Jess Dandy
Orchestra: BBC Philharmonic Orchestra
Conductor: John Storgårds
Format: FLAC (tracks)
Label: Chandos
Catalogue: CHSA5310
Release: 2023
Size: 1.25 GB
Recovery: +3%
Scan: yes
Six Poems of Marina Tsvetayeva, Op. 143 (for contralto and piano)
01. I. My verses
02. II. Whence all this tenderness?
03. III. Dialogue between Hamlet and His Conscience
04. IV. No, the drum did beat
05. V. The Poet and the Tsar
06. VI. To Anna Akhmatova
Symphony No. 14 in G minor, Op. 135
07. I. De profundis
08. II. Malaguena
09. III. Loreley
10. IV. The Suicide
11. V. On Watch
12. VI. Madam, look!
13. VII. In the Santé Prison
14. VIII. The Zaporozhian Cossacks’ Answer to the Sultan of Constantinople
15. IX. O Delvig, Delvig!
16. X. The Poet’s Death
17. XI. Conclusion
John Storgårds and the BBC Philharmonic continue their survey of Shostakovich’s late symphonies with this recoding of the 14th, with Elizabeth Atherton and Peter Rose as soloists. Completed in the spring of 1969, and premiered later that year, the symphony is written for soprano, bass and small string orchestra with percussion, setting eleven linked setting of poems by four authors. Most of the poems deal with the theme of death, particularly that of unjust or early death, and indeed all four of the poets had died prematurely and / or in unnatural circumstances – Wilhelm Küchelbecker in Siberian exile for his part in the 1825 Decembrist uprising, Federico García Lorca assassinated during the Spanish Civil War, in 1936, Rainer Maria Rilke of blood poisoning following an accident in 1926 and Guillaume Apollinaire in 1918 during the Spanish influenza pandemic. The Six Verses of Marina Tsvetayeva were composed in 1973, originally for contralto and piano, and subsequently arranged for chamber orchestra (the version we hear here, with Jess Dandy as soloist). The recording was made at Media City in Salford, Manchester, in Surround Sound, and is available as a hybrid SACD and in Spatial Audio.