Leonard Bernstein - Shostakovich Symphony No. 7Chicago Symphony - Unedited Broadcast Recording
DMITRI SHOSTAKOVICH Symphony No. 7 in C major, Op. 60 Chicago Symphony Orchestra LEONARD BERNSTEIN, conductor Recorded Symphony Hall, Chicago on 22 June, 1989
A symphony "written for the slow-witted, the not very musical and the distracted" is how Virgil Thompson described the Shostakovich 7th. Sergei Rachmaninov, after hearing the Toscanini broadcast of the American premiere is supposed to have said, "Well, and now let's have some tea."
Opinions of the Leningrad Symphony still vary widely -- about as widely as opinions of Bernstein's Chicago performance do. The first recording I came to know well was the Ancerl on one of the Denon Supraphon pressings and was so impressed with it that for years I never felt the need to investigate other recordings. I eventually heard the Rostropovich NSO (so-so) Rozhdestvensky (eh) and the Celibidache (surprisingly lacklustre for such an occasion) but i always came back to the Ancerl. When i finally encountered Bernstein's commercial Chicago recording it was a revelation to me. Unlike any other I had heard there was a perverseness to it, yes of course, but there was also something uniquely fascinating about it. I was never quite able to put my finger on it and still cannot verbalize precisely what it is about this performance that draws me to it but I listen to it often, particularly in this unedited live version. Perhaps it will infuriate you -- much in the way Lenny's Enigma Variations riles people up -- perhaps it will enthrall you. The one thing it will not do is leave you totally apathetic.
A symphony "written for the slow-witted, the not very musical and the distracted" is how Virgil Thompson described the Shostakovich 7th. Sergei Rachmaninov, after hearing the Toscanini broadcast of the American premiere is supposed to have said, "Well, and now let's have some tea."
Opinions of the Leningrad Symphony still vary widely -- about as widely as opinions of Bernstein's Chicago performance do. The first recording I came to know well was the Ancerl on one of the Denon Supraphon pressings and was so impressed with it that for years I never felt the need to investigate other recordings. I eventually heard the Rostropovich NSO (so-so) Rozhdestvensky (eh) and the Celibidache (surprisingly lacklustre for such an occasion) but i always came back to the Ancerl. When i finally encountered Bernstein's commercial Chicago recording it was a revelation to me. Unlike any other I had heard there was a perverseness to it, yes of course, but there was also something uniquely fascinating about it. I was never quite able to put my finger on it and still cannot verbalize precisely what it is about this performance that draws me to it but I listen to it often, particularly in this unedited live version. Perhaps it will infuriate you -- much in the way Lenny's Enigma Variations riles people up -- perhaps it will enthrall you. The one thing it will not do is leave you totally apathetic.
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