MusicWeb International One of the most grown-up review sites around 2024
60,000 reviews
... and still writing ...

Search MusicWeb Here Acte Prealable Polish CDs
 

Presto Music CD retailer
 
Founder: Len Mullenger                                    Editor in Chief:John Quinn             


Some items
to consider

new MWI
Current reviews

old MWI
pre-2023 reviews

paid for
advertisements

Acte Prealable Polish recordings

Forgotten Recordings
Forgotten Recordings
All Forgotten Records Reviews

TROUBADISC
Troubadisc Weinberg- TROCD01450

All Troubadisc reviews


FOGHORN Classics

Alexandra-Quartet
Brahms String Quartets

All Foghorn Reviews


All HDTT reviews


Songs to Harp from
the Old and New World


all Nimbus reviews



all tudor reviews


Follow us on Twitter


Editorial Board
MusicWeb International
Founding Editor
   
Rob Barnett
Editor in Chief
John Quinn
Contributing Editor
Ralph Moore
Webmaster
   David Barker
Postmaster
Jonathan Woolf
MusicWeb Founder
   Len Mullenger

REVIEW
BARGAIN OF THE MONTH


Advertising on
Musicweb


Donate and keep us afloat

 

New Releases

Naxos Classical
All Naxos reviews

Chandos recordings
All Chandos reviews

Hyperion recordings
All Hyperion reviews

Foghorn recordings
All Foghorn reviews

Troubadisc recordings
All Troubadisc reviews



all Bridge reviews


all cpo reviews

Divine Art recordings
Click to see New Releases
Get 10% off using code musicweb10
All Divine Art reviews


All Eloquence reviews

Lyrita recordings
All Lyrita Reviews

 

Wyastone New Releases
Obtain 10% discount

Subscribe to our free weekly review listing

 

 

alternatively
CD: MDT

Dmitri SHOSTAKOVICH (1906 - 1975)
Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk District (1934)
Aage Haugland (bass) - Boris Timofeyevich Izmailov; Philip Langridge (tenor) - Zinovi Borisovich Izmailov; Maria Ewing (soprano) - Katerina Lvovna Izmailova; Sergei Larin (tenor) - Sergei; Kristine Ciesincki (soprano) - Aksinya; Heinz Zednik (tenor) - Shabby Peasant; Romuald Tesarowicz (bass) - Priest; Anatoly Kotcherga (bass) - Police Sergeant; Johann Tilli (bass) - Sentry; Carlos Alvarez (baritone) - Officer; Elena Zaremba (mezzo) - Sonyetka; Kurt Moll (bass) - Old Convict; Aage Haugland (bass) - Ghost of Boris
Orchestre et Choeurs de l’Opera Bastille/Myung-Whun Chung
rec. Opéra Bastille, Paris, February 1992
Synopsis in three languages in the booklet but no libretto
DEUTSCHE GRAMMOPHON 477 9118 [79:13 + 76:19]

Experience Classicsonline


Initially this opera was quite popular, in spite of the partially quite advanced musical idiom and the debatable morals in portraying a murderess so sympathetically. It was not until two years after the premiere that Pravda, the Communist party’s organ, published an anonymous article - sometimes ascribed to Stalin himself - which condemned the work on both moral and musical grounds. ‘Chaos instead of music’, said the article and the opera was banned in the Soviet Union for more than thirty years. Shostakovich revised it in the early 1960s and that version, now entitled Katerina Izmailova, was premiered on 26 December 1962. Officially at least Shostakovich preferred the revised version but after his death the original work has become more or less the standard version. There have been recordings of the revision, among them a video from 1966 with Galina Vishnevskaya in the title role but then the classic recording of Lady Macbeth was for a long time the EMI set from 1979, conducted by his longstanding friend Mstislav Rostropovich and with Vishnevskaya again as Katerina, Nicolai Gedda as Sergey and the Bulgarian bass Dimiter Petkov as Boris and an impressive international cast in the many big comprimario roles. I acquired the LPs when first issued and have cherished them ever since. About a year ago I reviewed a DVD from Maggio Musicale Fiorentino (see review) which was visually exciting and sported several good actors and singers - best of all Vladimir Vaneev as Boris - but was seriously let down by the singing of the title role. It is still worth seeing for the intensity and realism.
 
I missed this DG set when it first came out, and that is something to regret since it is a worthy alternative to the 1979 Rostropovich. Rostropovich made his recording in London with the LPO and the Ambrosians, Chung in Paris with the forces of the Opéra Bastille. Both are superb in every respect and though Rostropovich as the hyper-romantic excels in details and myriad nuances, Chung with his more sober approach is just as convincing and misses nothing of the raw power of this patchy but fascinating work. The differences are the fruits of different temperaments, not different artistic qualities.
 
Comparing the casts it is difficult to single out one in preference of the other. Like her husband Vishnevskaya was a close friend of Shostakovich and had probably studied the title role for the composer when the 1966 video was recorded, so the authenticity cannot be questioned. It has to be said that the manuscript of the 1934 original never appeared until three years after Shostakovich’s death but the title role differs very little between the two versions. Maria Ewing is however one of the great singing actresses of the last 25 years and her portrait of Katerina is just as involved, even more vehement at times and she sounds younger, closer to Katerina’s supposed age: Vishnevskaya was well over fifty when she recorded the role, Ewing just past forty. Sergei Larin was perhaps the best ‘Russian’ - he was born in Latvia and studied in Lithuania - tenor of the period and it says a lot for his prowess that he is not second best to Nicolai Gedda, who without doubt was the foremost tenor in Russian repertoire during the whole post-war era.
 
The magnificent Norwegian Aage Haugland - who was the sergeant in the Rostropovich set - is a larger-than-life Boris, depicting this one-dimensionally evil character to perfection. He also shows in his monologue about ageing (CD 1 tr. 11) - one of the few examples of humanity in this opera - that he can be an expressive artist in restrained circumstances as well. Dimiter Petkov for Rostropovich is excellent too in a less grandiose way.
 
There is a great need for good basses in this opera and each set is lucky in this respect with the great Kurt Moll making a memorably warm portrait of the Old Convict in the last act. Philip Langridge is an expressive Zinovy, Heinz Zednik a lively Shabby Peasant. Both these tenors were for many years world-leading character singers. Elena Zaremba should also be pointed out as a dramatic Sonyetka in the last act, more overt than Rostropovich’s Birgit Finnilä.
 
From the above readers may already have concluded I have great difficulties picking a winner. It looks like a dead heat. If in the last resort I remain loyal to the Rostropovich recording (now in EMI’s GROC series - see review) this is just as much for the long acquaintance with it as the possible greater authenticity, though with Rostropovich and Vishnevskaya as central figures this factor can’t be disregarded. Anyway I am happy to have access to both recordings. They complement each other admirably.
 
Göran Forsling 

 

 

 

 


 


EXPLORE MUSICWEB INTERNATIONAL

Making a Donation to MusicWeb

Writing CD reviews for MWI

About MWI
Who we are, where we have come from and how we do it.

Site Map

How to find a review

How to find articles on MusicWeb
Listed in date order

Review Indexes
   By Label
      Select a label and all reviews are listed in Catalogue order
   By Masterwork
            Links from composer names (eg Sibelius) are to resource pages with links to the review indexes for the individual works as well as other resources.

Themed Review pages

Jazz reviews

 

Discographies
   Composer
      Composer surveys
   National
      Unique to MusicWeb -
a comprehensive listing of all LP and CD recordings of given works
.
Prepared by Michael Herman

The Collector’s Guide to Gramophone Company Record Labels 1898 - 1925
Howard Friedman

Book Reviews

Complete Books
We have a number of out of print complete books on-line

Interviews
With Composers, Conductors, Singers, Instumentalists and others
Includes those on the Seen and Heard site

Nostalgia

Nostalgia CD reviews

Records Of The Year
Each reviewer is given the opportunity to select the best of the releases

Monthly Best Buys
Recordings of the Month and Bargains of the Month

Comment
Arthur Butterworth Writes

An occasional column

Phil Scowcroft's Garlands
British Light Music articles

Classical blogs
A listing of Classical Music Blogs external to MusicWeb International

Reviewers Logs
What they have been listening to for pleasure

Announcements

 

Community
Bulletin Board

Give your opinions or seek answers

Reviewers
Past and present

Helpers invited!

Resources
How Did I Miss That?

Currently suspended but there are a lot there with sound clips


Composer Resources

British Composers

British Light Music Composers

Other composers

Film Music (Archive)
Film Music on the Web (Closed in December 2006)

Programme Notes
For concert organizers

External sites
British Music Society
The BBC Proms
Orchestra Sites
Recording Companies & Retailers
Online Music
Agents & Marketing
Publishers
Other links
Newsgroups
Web News sites etc

PotPourri
A pot-pourri of articles

MW Listening Room
MW Office

Advice to Windows Vista users  
Questionnaire    
Site History  
What they say about us
What we say about us!
Where to get help on the Internet
CD orders By Special Request
Graphics archive
Currency Converter
Dictionary
Magazines
Newsfeed  
Web Ring
Translation Service

Rules for potential reviewers :-)
Do Not Go Here!
April Fools






Untitled Document


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.