Royal Liverpool PO, Vasily Petrenko - Dmitry Shostakovich: Symphony No. 10 (2010)

Petrenko’s Shostakovich cycle goes from strength to strength, and hardly any of the reservations I voiced over his Eighth apply to this profound and passionate account of No 10.

This is a symphony that places a high premium on a conductor’s ability to shape long lines with subtle inflections of tempo and structural accent, especially in the epic first movement’s journey from mystery to tragic climax and back. In this respect Petrenko lives up to – I venture to say, even surpasses – the greatest of his compatriots, joining the earlier Karajan account as the most satisfying I could name. Only the very slight jolt in dynamic level on the way down from the passionate central phase (at 15'08") fractionally disappoints.

The denunciatory Scherzo is as hefty and as furious as any, or would be if only the trumpets rang out more fiercely at the high-point (from 3'45"). I don’t know whether to lay the blame at the door of players, conductor or engineers, but this apparent misplaced reticence is the same weakness I felt in Petrenko’s Eighth, so I hope it can be overcome in future issues.

At any rate it is not long before the third movement casts its spell, with the perfect watchful tentativeness at the opening and some inspired pointing of colour and accent in the first statement of the “DSCH” theme. Here and in the finale Petrenko’s instinct for pacing enables the power of Shostakovich’s symphonic design to register to maximum effect. If there has been a finer account of the Tenth in recent years, I confess I must have missed it; and I would be surprised. With the possible exception of the brass balance, noted above, the Naxos recording is clear and full-bodied.

Review by David Fanning, Gramophone

The Tenth is a symphony into which many have been tempted to read parallels with Shostakovich’s life: the bleak moods of the earlier stages were conjured before the death of Stalin in 1953, while the finale is an obviously personal celebration of ambiguous liberation.

The refreshing thing is that Petrenko treats it as a great symphony in its own right. In one of the fleetest first movements on record, he traces a single melodic line, with a brief deviation into the limping, waltzing second subject.

This means no slackening, no rhetorical grandiosity even in the shattering central climax, so that song, rather than numb misery, can lead the way. In this Petrenko’s RLPO strings and woodwind support him to the hilt.

All dynamics and metronome marks are scrupulously observed, but details never impede the progress of this rippling, human tragedy. And there’s a quite different sense of strong legato in the limbo-dance of the extraordinary third movement, superbly handled with strong contributions from cor anglais and bassoon, and a liberating horn solo whose power is internal, rather than artificially stressed from without.

The whirlwind scherzo is hair-raising. But it’s in Petrenko’s Finale that all lines meet: the arching, painful lyricism of the first movement crystallised in the opening oboe solo, the perky Allegro light and airy at first to point up its contrast to the second movement, which duly breaks in as storm clouds gather.

The ending is genuinely exultant. Recorded sound is brilliant; I’d have liked a little more of the perspective I find in the top sonic experiences of Bernard Haitink (Decca) and Mariss Jansons (EMI), but the approach suits the directness of this interpretation

Review by David Nice, BBC Music Magazine

Exact Audio Copy V1.1 from 23. June 2015

EAC extraction logfile from 5. May 2016, 13:51

Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, Vasily Petrenko / Shostakovich - Symphony No.10

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