Search - Shostakovich, Mravinsky, Leningrad Phil Orch :: Symphony 5

A pretty standard performance

01/16/1999

(4 out of 5 stars)

"The third movement comes off best although I have serious reservations with the plodding second movement and the final bars of the finale. There is plenty of passion in the playing, but the last once of seering bravado this symphony requires is missing. Past Mravinsky performances fare better(this one was recorded in 1984), but the 1959 Berstein recording reissued as part of the Berstein Royal Edition fares much better in terms of the playing of the NYP, the recording, and the unforgettable transition from the third movement to the pounding speed of the finale."