Comparison Recordings:
Shostakovich: Ballet Suites #’s 1 -
3, Neemi Järvi, SNO Chandos CHAN
8730
Shostakovich: Jazz Suites #’s 1 &
2; the Bolt. Yablonsky, RSSO Naxos DVD-Audio
5.110006. Also available on CD: Naxos
8.555949.
Things have changed
a lot. It used to be that these Suites
were esoteric music, only available
on a long out-of-print CBS monophonic
LP; now they are virtually war-horses,
heard and recorded frequently. For years
the Chandos label has been the audiophile
recorded sound standard, far head of
the competition, this Järvi disk
in particular. Naxos productions used
to be cheap affairs with indifferent
recording and inexpensive artwork reproduced
in duo-tone on the booklet covers, with
no repetition of the track list from
the tray liner inside the booklet. And
Russian conductors in general were given
to noisy overstatement, while Russian
orchestras often had a harsh blary clumsy
sound.
Well, none of that
is true any more. Chandos is still an
audiophile leader with great recorded
sound, but they’re not so far out ahead,
and Naxos — yes, Naxos — with their
line of DVD-Audios has moved forward
even into the ranks of the front leaders!
In keeping with their new sound quality
standards, the full colour artwork on
the cover has greatly improved in artistic
quality and reproduction. This master
tape will surely make a great DVD-Audio,
but if you don’t have the player for
such a disk, be assured that this disk
contains first-rate audiophile CD sound.
The all-important high and low percussion
accents are unforced and clean, all
instruments are clearly delineated and
accurately placed in the sound perspective,
and playing the disk through your surround
sound decoder only enhances this perspective.
The summary track list on the tray liner
is repeated and expanded in the booklet.
As to the musical performance,
if you told a friend this disk was Adrian
Boult conducting the London Symphony
Orchestra, he would hear nothing to
suggest otherwise, except the playfulness
of the musical gestures and the schmaltzy
touches here and there might sometimes
be a little too un-British. The smooth
disciplined polish of the orchestral
sound, the elegant strings, the lightly
danceable forward motion, are the equal
of the best Western orchestras.
These suites were all
arranged from music by Shostakovich
for stage works — mostly "The Limpid
Stream" and "The Human Comedy."
By 1949 some of these works had been
banned from performance because of content
so Lev Atovmyan arranged these suites
of otherwise unavailable music for use
by radio stations.
In the past I have
praised Yablonsky even though other
critics fault him for being cool, uninvolved
in the music. Perhaps on this disk I
must agree with them. I think the Järvi
recording is still the best one, even
though with Yablonsky you get an extra
suite. Järvi pumps up the satire
just a little by exaggerating some of
the gestures, his performance is memorable.
Järvi’s sound is still excellent,
the recorded perspective is closer and
the dynamic range is greater. Only in
direct comparison with Yablonsky does
it sound just the tiniest bit congested,
a difference which would be greater
on the DVD-Audio issue, of course.
If you have the Järvi
recording you might prefer to supplement
it with Yablonsky’s DVD-audio of the
Jazz Suite #1 which supplied
two of these movements, and the music
from The Bolt which supplied
another.
Paul Shoemaker
Dmitri Yablonsky, cello solo; Oleg Tokathev,
trumpet solo 