Gergiev, Mariinsky Orchestra - Shostakovich: Symphonies 3 & 10 (2011) [SACD]

Editor’s Choice – ”This superbly recorded disc remains, for me at least, 1 of the few indispensable Shostakovich CDs of recent years.” ~Gramophone Magazine
For the 3rd release in his Shostakovich symphony cycle, Valery Gergiev again couples 3 works from different stages in the composer’s career. Although Shostakovich’s symphonies are usually highly programmatic, the 3rd & 10th symphonies are among his most enigmatic works. The 3rd was 1st performed in January 1930, its final movement setting a text by Semyon Isaakovich Kirsanov praising May Day & the revolution. Shostakovich stated that the work, expresses the spirit of peaceful reconstruction, yet much of the music is dark & somber in tone. The 10th is 1 of his most popular & frequently heard works. 1st performed in December 1953, the great Russian soprano Galina Vishnevskaya claimed that the symphony was, a composer’s testament of misery, forever damning a tyrant.
A winning Shostakovich disc from Gergiev & the Mariinsky… this is a very fine performance of the 10th & probably as good a performance of the negligible 3rd as you’re likely to hear… Gergiev’s performance maps the eventful contours of this work [Symphony No 10] with great sensitivity. The melancholy 1st movement unfolds with a palpable sense of dread & sorrow, the 2nd movement crackles with violent energy, & the 3rd has all the sardonic wit of Mahler’s night-music interludes. The last movement builds to its wild celebratory final pages with the proper sense of inevitability. Throughout, the Mariinsky players give their all, fired up no doubt by the presence of a live audience. This is a very, very fine 10th Symphony, certainly among the best in SACD.