Royal Liverpool PO, Vasily Petrenko - Dmitry Shostakovich: Symphony No. 7 'Leningrad' (2013)

Always one of the most popular of Dmitry Shostakovich's symphonies, the Symphony No. 7 in C major was premiered in 1942 and used as propaganda for the Soviet effort in World War II. Yet Shostakovich's own intentions for the piece remain enigmatic, despite his stated purpose that it represents Russian resistance in the face of Nazi aggression. As with many of this composer's works, there are ways to read the layers beneath the surface. Shostakovich withdrew the titles he originally attached to the movements, and never gave the symphony a specific program, so much of it can be taken as ambiguous and abstract, expressing many things from the acknowledged patriotic fervor to more evasive personal feelings, even suggesting more cerebral, musical considerations. This 2012 recording by Vasily Petrenko and the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra offers plenty of heroism for those who hear the work as a wartime manifesto, yet the playing is subtle and shaded enough to include the possibilities of Shostakovich's ironic detachment and sardonic tone, so strongly present here that it often suggests mockery. Petrenko brings off the most bellicose passages with real harshness, though they can also be heard as pastiches of the expected Soviet style, masking Shostakovich's real expression in the long sections of gloomy and elegiac music. The orchestra gives a committed and sure-footed performance, and Petrenko's rapport with his musicians goes a long way toward explaining the spontaneity and energy of their playing. Naxos' recording is clean and spacious, with a resonant acoustic that is great in the climaxes but less helpful in the echoic instrumental solos.

Review by Blair Sanderson, Allmusic.com

In the wrong hands, Shostakovich’s Leningrad Symphony can be an unwieldy beast. Vasily Petrenko’s, however, are the right hands, and his finely tuned RLPO is the right orchestra. Knowing the circumstances under which the symphony was written, it is perhaps impossible to hear it as abstract music, but nor is it a programmatic tableau. It is certainly a work that captures the spirit of its time (1941), the darkness, defiance and deprivations of war combined with the ambivalence of whether Shostakovich was expressing fears about the threat of Hitler or horror at the home-grown oppression of Stalin. But it also stands up as a symphonic structure, if a sizeable one. Petrenko and the RLPO, adding to their impressive Naxos series of the Shostakovich symphonies, rise superbly to the Seventh’s challenges.

Inevitably, since it is one of the work’s defining features, attention is drawn particularly to the protracted, menacing march in the first movement. Here it is not simply that Petrenko has complete command of the long crescendo that leads from the eerie side-drum taps at the start to the cataclysmic clash of the climax, but that he also pays heed to the dynamic details along the way, colouring those unnerving conflicts of instrumental timbre with chilling precision.

With the RLPO unfailingly on his side, Petrenko can also achieve moments of deathly hush, weird reverie and a sense of the music holding its breath with apprehension. The playing is not only well drilled throughout the four movements, it is also steeped in atmosphere that evokes a whole spectrum of emotions that seem to come as close to the nub of what Shostakovich was experiencing and voicing through his music as it is possible to be. While we all hear this symphony in our own ways, Petrenko’s vision of it is thoroughly compelling.

Review by Geoffrey Norris, The Telegraph

Exact Audio Copy V1.1 from 23. June 2015

EAC extraction logfile from 5. May 2016, 1:13

Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, Vasily Petrenko / Shostakovich - Symphony No.7 'Leningrad'

Used drive : HL-DT-STDVDRAM GU70N Adapter: 1 ID: 0

Read mode : Secure
Utilize accurate stream : Yes
Defeat audio cache : Yes
Make use of C2 pointers : No

Read offset correction : 48
Overread into Lead-In and Lead-Out : No
Fill up missing offset samples with silence : Yes
Delete leading and trailing silent blocks : No
Null samples used in CRC calculations : Yes
Used interface : Native Win32 interface for Win NT & 2000

Used output format : User Defined Encoder
Selected bitrate : 128 kBit/s
Quality : High
Add ID3 tag : No
Command line compressor : C:\Program Files (x86)\Exact Audio Copy\Flac\flac.exe
Additional command line options : -V -8 -T "Date=%year%" -T "Genre=%genre%" %source%


TOC of the extracted CD

Track | Start | Length | Start sector | End sector
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––-
1 | 0:00.00 | 28:36.10 | 0 | 128709
2 | 28:36.10 | 12:57.32 | 128710 | 187016
3 | 41:33.42 | 18:38.08 | 187017 | 270874
4 | 60:11.50 | 19:01.36 | 270875 | 356485


Range status and errors

Selected range

Filename C:\temp\Shostakovich - Symphony No.7 - Petrenko\Shostakovich - Symphony No.7.wav

Peak level 100.0 %
Extraction speed 2.3 X
Range quality 100.0 %
Test CRC 015F930C
Copy CRC 015F930C
Copy OK

No errors occurred


AccurateRip summary

Track 1 accurately ripped (confidence 24) [50A06487] (AR v2)
Track 2 accurately ripped (confidence 23) [806E7A88] (AR v2)
Track 3 accurately ripped (confidence 24) [C8A2960D] (AR v2)
Track 4 accurately ripped (confidence 25) [1F9D2298] (AR v2)

All tracks accurately ripped

End of status report

==== Log checksum 67A713BB0BE12C9E80D0C829555B6557A5B63557E757A3FCF76BA6F16BE2F69B ====

foobar2000 1.2 / Dynamic Range Meter 1.1.1
log date: 2016-05-11 14:12:22

––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
Analyzed: Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, Vasily Petrenko / Shostakovich - Symphony No.7 'Leningrad'
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

DR Peak RMS Duration Track
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
DR14 0.00 dB -20.25 dB 28:36 01-I. Allegretto
DR16 -2.71 dB -26.64 dB 12:57 02-II. Moderato (Poco allegretto)
DR15 -2.26 dB -24.87 dB 18:38 03-III. Adagio
DR15 0.00 dB -20.39 dB 19:01 04-IV. Allegro non troppo
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

Number of tracks: 4
Official DR value: DR15

Samplerate: 44100 Hz
Channels: 2
Bits per sample: 16
Bitrate: 533 kbps
Codec: FLAC
================================================================================