RECORDING OF THE MONTH     CHOPIN Waltzes and Impromptus Vladimir Feltsman £11 post free World-wide VIVALDI The four seasons London Mozart Players/Juritz £12 post free World-wide BEETHOVEN Symphonies 4 and 5 LSO/Yondani Butt £12 post free World-wide

BUY NOW  Crotchet   AmazonUK   AmazonUS

Dmitri SHOSTAKOVICH (1906 - 1975) Ballet Suites (edited by Lev Atovmyan): No.1 (1950); No.2 (1951); No.3 (1952); No.4 (1953) Dmitri Yablonsky (cello) Oleg Tokathev (trumpet) Russian Philharmonic Orchestra/Dmitri Yablonsky Recorded in KULTURA Studio 5, Moscow, 1 June 2003 NAXOS 8.557208 [60.07]

The Ballet Suites were all arranged from Shostakovich’s stage, film and ballet works and were edited for publication in 1949 by Lev Atovmyan. Interestingly they were originally intended for radio broadcast. The suites derive from works such as The Limpid Stream, The Bolt, The Human Comedy and the Suite for Jazz Orchestra No.1 and in fact the third Ballet Suite divides equally between just two - The Human Comedy and The Limpid Stream. Infectiously entertaining and lighthearted they receive committed and colourful performances from Yablonsky and his forces, now well established on disc as authoritative interpreters of this kind of repertoire. The winds bear a weight in such as the Polka (from The Limpid Stream) of the First but show their quasi-satiric teeth nicely whilst the portentous Adagio of the Second with its reserved cello solo (Yablonsky again it seems) scores highly. Trumpeter Tokathev is on top form for the Sentimental Romance (from The tale of a priest and His Servant Balda) that sits at the near heart of the second suite. Fortunately Yablonsky and his band don’t overplay things - such as the Dance of the Third Suite or the light-but-lovely Waltz; rather beautiful, this. Whether in waltz or gallop Shostakovich proves consistently full of verve and these performances, warmly recorded, are splendid ones. Jonathan Woolf see also review by Paul Shoemaker   Advertising Rates Visitor stats MusicWeb International has over 40,000 Classical CD reviews on offer Discs received Having a problem Donating? Gerard Hoffnung Concerts & The Bricklayer Story   New Releases New Releases   MusicWeb sells the Polish catalogue CDAccord £10.50 post free W-W MusicWeb sells the Arcodiva catalogue £12.00 post free W-W £11.75 post-free world- wide MusicWeb can now offer you discs from the following catalogues: Prices include postage [Acte Préalable £13.50] [Arcodiva £12.00] [Avie from £6.25] [British Music Society £12.00] [CDACCORD from £13.50 ] [ClassicO £12.50] [Hallé from £11] [Heritage £10] [Hortus £14.99 ] [Lyrita ONLY £11.75 ] [Nimbus Special prices] [Northern Flowers £13.50] [REDCLIFFE £11 ] [Sheva £11] [Tactus £11.50 ] [Talent from £12.00 ] [Toccata Classics £10.50 ] Musicweb Special Offers Monthly Best Buys     Google Ads - for information about privacy matters, click here.  Amazon Musicweb International is a participant in the Amazon EU Associates Programme, an affiliate advertising programme designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.co.uk and Amazon.com

Return to Index

Reviews from previous months Join the mailing list and receive a hyperlinked weekly update on the discs reviewed. details We welcome feedback on our reviews. Please use the Bulletin Board Please paste in the first line of your comments the URL of the review to which you refer.