Shostakovich Under Stalin's Shadow - Symphonies Nos. 5, 8 & 9 - Suite From Hamlet Boston Symphony Orchestra & Andris Nelsons

• Dmitri Shostakovich (1906-1975): Symphony No. 9 in E flat major op. 70
• 11. Allegro05:23
• 22. Moderato08:08
• 33. Presto -02:53
• 44. Largo -03:34
• 55. Allegretto06:43
• Symphony No. 5 in D minor op. 47
• 61. Moderato16:35
• 72. Allegretto05:36
• 83. Largo15:25
• 94. Allegro non troppo12:26
• Suite from the Incidental Music to Hamlet op. 32a (excerpts)
• 101. Introduction And Night Patrol02:45
• 112. Funeral March01:32
• 123. Flourish And Dance Music02:22
• 134. The Hunt01:58
• 149. Ophelia's Song01:31
• 1510. Cradle Song01:24
• 1611. Requiem02:40
• Symphony No. 8 in C minor op. 65
• 171. Adagio26:44
• 182. Allegretto06:32
• 193. Allegro non troppo06:38
• 204. Largo10:34
• 215. Allegretto16:12
• Total Runtime02:37:35

Info for Shostakovich Under Stalin's Shadow - Symphonies Nos. 5, 8 & 9 - Suite From Hamlet

Andris Nelsons is the Music Director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra and in fall 2015 he was announced as Gewandhauskapellmeister of the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, commencing in the 2017/18 season.

With both appointments, and in leading a pioneering alliance between these two esteemed institutions, Andris Nelsons is firmly underlined as one of the most renowned and innovative conductors on the international scene today.

The goal is a complete Shostakovich cycle on Deutsche Grammophon with the Boston Symphony Orchestra.

Andris Nelsons even though he is only in his mid 30s has had a long journey with Shostakovich. He is one of the last conductors of his generation who still grew up in the Russian and, more especially, the Soviet musical tradition ever since he started his training as a conductor. He studied in St Petersburg with Alexander Titov and also with Mariss Jansons.

His new orchestra has had a great tradition in performing many of Shostakovichs works in America for the first time.

This recording provides a kaleidoscope of Shostakovichs struggle with historical events and political pressures. The pre-war eclectic but accessible and popular 5th, in which he would seem to bow to political pressure, ensured his temporary rehabilitation. The beautiful but dark and gloomy mid-war 8th provoked yet again his fall from favor and instead of providing the political authorities with a triumphant post-war 9th Symphony, Shostakovich wrote a light Haydnesque work which would not be performed until after Stalins death. Selections from the Hamlet Suite, possibly Shostakovichs best film score, rounds out this double album set.

„. . incredible tones of strings and woodwind principals. . .the crucial climaxes have punch as well as the right pulling out or back to articulate the centres of gravity . . . [Nelsons has] taken charge of Americas most cultured orchestra and, given recording of unparalleled naturalness, height and depth, it sounds absolutely wonderful . . . [the disc starts with] the Passacaglia from Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk, and Nelsons connects its dark and superbly present bass lines with the opening of the Symphony. The pacing, the atmosphere, the expressive space for stricken solos and the sheer electric charge of the gallops are up there with the best . . . [this joins] the top ranks of recent Shostakovich . . . and sonically its peerless.“( David Nice, BBC Music Magazine, London)

„This is now Nelsons's BSO. The path to that connection was forged through dozens of warmly received Nelsons-led performances and an impressive series of firsts: the first multi-year recording project with a major label in over two decades; the excellent first release in that project; the first international tour under Nelsons; and the conductors first contract extension . . .“ (Jeremy Eichler, Boston Globe)

„. . . [Nelsons achieves] a beautifully detailed, powerfully delineated and meticulously shaped performance . . . If this impressive album is any indication, Nelsons [and the Boston Symphony] . . . have a long and fruitful partnership ahead of them. It might even legitimately become the stuff of legend.“ (Washington Post)

Boston Symphony Orchestra
Andris Nelsons, conductor

The BSO’s History with Shostakovich and His Music
In conjunction with the performances and recordings of Shostakovich’s works, the BSO has compiled an online archival exhibit detailing the BSO’s history with Shostakovich, including Serge Koussevitzky’s close advocacy of Shostakovich’s music during his BSO music directorship, 1925-49; an interview with Andris Nelsons about his early experiences and strong ties to Shostakovich’s music; and fascinating details on the August 14, 1942 American premiere performance of Shostakovich’s Seventh Symphony by the Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra. Shostakovich’s symphonies have figured in the Boston Symphony Orchestra’s repertoire on frequent occasions since the BSO’s initial performances of the composer’s Symphony No. 1 in November 1935. During the 1940s, legendary BSO conductor Serge Koussevitzky led the orchestra in frequent performances of the composer’s symphonies 1, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9, in Boston, at Tanglewood, and out of town in New York, Brooklyn, New Haven, Hartford, Washington, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Chicago, Ann Arbor, Rochester, and Toledo. Equally significantly, it was Koussevitzky who gave the first American concert performance of the Symphony No. 7, Leningrad, with the Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra (then known as the Berkshire Music Center Orchestra) at Tanglewood in a Russian Benefit Concert on August 14, 1942 (following the U.S. premiere in a broadcast concert by Toscanini and the NBC Symphony the previous month). Koussevitzky and the Boston Symphony Orchestra made recordings for RCA Victor of the Adagio from the Symphony No. 8 in April 1945 (a recording later reissued as part of a BSO fundraising album in 1989), and of the Symphony No. 9 in November 1946/April 1947. Other Boston Symphony recordings of Shostakovich’s music include the composer’s Cello Concerto No. 2 with conductor Seiji Ozawa and soloist Mstislav Rostropovich, recorded for Deutsche Grammophon in August 1975; and the Violin Concerto No. 2 with soloist Gidon Kremer under Ozawa’s direction, also recorded for Deutsche Grammophon in April 1992. In addition, a September 1964 Boston Symphony telecast of Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 1 with Erich Leinsdorf conducting has been released on DVD by IMG Artists.

Other conductors who have led performances of Shostakovich symphonies with the BSO have included BSO music directors Erich Leinsdorf and Seiji Ozawa, BSO conductor emeritus Bernard Haitink, and such distinguished guest conductors as, among others, Paavo Berglund, Leonard Bernstein, James Conlon, Andrew Davis, Valery Gergiev, Mariss Jansons, Vladimir Jurowski, Charles Mackerras, Kurt Masur, André Previn, Gennady Rozhdestvensky, Kurt Sanderling, the composer’s son Maxim Shostakovich, Leonard Slatkin, Leopold Stokowski, and Yuri Temirkanov. In 1956, the Boston Symphony Orchestra became the first American orchestra to perform in the U.S.S.R. when it gave five concerts in Leningrad and Moscow under the direction of Charles Munch and Pierre Monteux. In November 1959, as part of a United States-Soviet educational-cultural exchange, Dmitri Shostakovich himself headed a delegation of Soviet composers visiting Symphony Hall to hear a Boston Symphony program of Russian and American music. On August 9, 1975, upon returning to the podium to conduct Shostakovich’s already-scheduled Symphony No. 5 as the second half of that afternoon’s BSO program at Tanglewood, Mstislav Rostropovich stunned the audience by announcing the news of Shostakovich’s death earlier that day––in what may well have been the first public announcement in the U.S. of the composer’s death, the news having only just reached Rostropovich during the intermission of that concert.

Boston
The arena rock group behind one of the fastest-selling debut albums in history, Boston was essentially the vehicle of studio wizard Tom Scholz, born March 10, 1947, in Toledo, OH. A rock fan throughout his teen years, he began writing songs while earning a master's degree at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. After graduation, he began work for Polaroid, and set about constructing his own 12-track recording studio in the basement of his home, where demos were recorded that earned Scholz and vocalist Brad Delp a contract with Epic in 1975. Although some recording and overdubs were later done in Los Angeles, the 1976 release of Boston consisted largely of tapes recorded in Scholz's basement. (By then, the lineup had coalesced around Scholz, Delp, guitarist Barry Goudreau, bassist Fran Sheehan, and drummer John "Sib" Hashian.) Boston spawned three hit singles ("More Than a Feeling," "Long Time," and "Peace of Mind"), and shot immediately to the top of the charts, remaining the best-selling pop debut effort in history before it was supplanted by Whitney Houston's first album in 1986.

Despite the record's overwhelming success, Scholz spent over two years working on the follow-up, 1978's number one hit Don't Look Back; a perfectionist, he only then released the album because of intense label pressure for product. Unsatisfied with the results, he swore to produce the next album at his own pace; as a result, the chart-topping Third Stage did not appear until 1986, at which time only Scholz and Delp remained from the original lineup.

Scholz spent the next several years in the courtroom: eventually, he won a seven-year battle against Epic, which claimed Boston had reneged on its contract by taking so long between releases. When the band resurfaced again in 1994 with Walk On, Scholz was the lone remaining member; Delp and Goudreau had reunited in 1992 as RTZ, releasing the album Return to Zero. Unlike previous returns, Walk On was a commercial failure. Radio and MTV ignored any attempts at singles or videos, and the minimalist approach taken by the popular alternative artists of the era made the crystalline production and lengthy recording time seem anachronistic.

Taking another eight years to work on the next record, he targeted the Internet crowd first by releasing a single to /www.MP3.com in the summer of 2002. The track became the site's number one download, and word of their new album spread quickly. (Delp's return to the group also helped matters.) Secondly, Scholz set his lyrical sights on political targets, going so far as to title the record Corporate America as he emphasized his disdain for the system he had been a vital part of at one time. After releasing the record in the fall of that year, Boston embarked on a tour that took them into 2004. In March of 2007, however, Delp passed away in an incident later ruled suicide.

In addition to his fame as a musician, Scholz also found success as an inventor and businessman. In 1981, he formed Scholz Research & Design, Inc., a company founded to create high-tech music equipment. After first developing the Power Soak, a volume-control device, SR&D introduced the Rockman, a small and inexpensive guitar amplifier with headphones. The Rockman proved phenomenally popular with other musicians, and the capital generated from its sales helped fund Scholz's further musical ambitions. (Jason Ankeny, All Music Guide)

Booklet for Shostakovich Under Stalin's Shadow - Symphonies Nos. 5, 8 & 9 - Suite From Hamlet